Fixen and Eaten Squirrels

Okay guys I’ve tried squirrel 3 different ways: fried, baked, and grilled. Problem the meat has been tough and dry. The next ones will be in the pressure cooker. Any suggestions how to tenderize?

Tree rat n dumplings......

Stick them in chicken broth in the crock pot till the meat falls off the bone. Peel the meat and use it in your favorite pot pie recipe.


Just had some for supper!

Pressure cooker works great for tenderizing

Have not been crazy about dumplings but may have to try it again with the squirrel.

Wife said the pressure cooker with bbq sauce is the ticket for the next batch. She also liked the pot pie idea too.

Sous vide that rascal then fry it. Or pressure cook it first. Usually only fried young ones, the older ones always ended up in dumplins.

sear them real good. Add a little water, salt, pepper and flour then let them simmer in a dutch oven for a couple hours.

I toss them in flour (salt and pepper) and fry in olive oil on low for 20 minutes each side. Take out and toss in flour again. Put pieces in cake pan and add milk to the top of meat. Put foil on top, but only seal 2 sides lightly. Bake on 300 for 3 hours. I like to let it cool and take the meat out and peel off bone (it will fall off) and add back to the gravy that was produced. Mix together and put over rice or mashed potatoes (or could do dumplings). Some of the best wild game meat.

The young ones I fry, the older ones either pop pie or stew for about all I cook

Grandma would fry young ones and the older ones went into the dumpling pot.


Mo

Soak 'em in buttermilk for 2 to 3 hours; keep the bones in 'em while they cook; and then slow cook 'em until the meat falls off the bones.

I only like them with dumplings

Pan fry. Use the grease to make a roux and dump in the stew pot with tomatoes and your favorite stew vegetables.

Curios what does soaking them in buttermilk do for the taste or as a tenderize for the meat.

Crock Pot with gravy has always made them perfect for me.

Should’ve taken the shot gun to the deer blind Saturday and I would have had another mess of squirrels to try some of your suggestions. 0 deer seen, 6-8 squirrels within shotgun range.

Well, you must not be too hungry.

Bunch of good ways mentioned on here already but another way i like them is to lightly bread them and fry them for a few minutes on each side then throw them in a pan then make your gravy and pour it over the squirrels and stick them in the oven til the meats tender.

Young ones I fry, old ones I make Brunswick Stew.

Red fox squirrels tend to be tough. The grey squirrels are much more tender.

How do you cook cotton squirrels and pack squirrels....

This right here. My wife makes the best squirrel pie! She hates it when I tell people that, especially her city slicker friends .

Well if they don't like the pie don't tell them about the brains.

I would have to give the #1 to this. I have been hearing amazing things about the sous vide method. And with them being on sale cause of BF/CM....that's what I'd do.

My grand daddy made the best sqwerl stew in the world.

Par boil then fry.....

Have done many things in the past. We usually do 1-2 squirrel hunts a year and they all go into a pot of critter gumbo that evening. Hard to beat it.....

I make a pretty mean curried squirrel. Kinda Redneck/Indian fusion cuisine.

My great uncle used to slow cook them. As others have mentioned, put them in the slow cooker until the meat falls off the bone.

My Grandma like to fry them.

My fondest memories are of my, my dad, grandpa, uncles, and cousins setting up in the woods to get a bunch of squirrels for dinner.

saw this done years ago, easier than sliced bread

Pretty slick skinning job. I might try this on the next mess.

CB327, Buttermilk and or regular whole milk are "acids" on the PH scale. soaking them in either will take the gamey taste out AND will tenderize the meat. I would soak them for about 8 hours.

Gray squirrels taste better than fox squirrels. And an old memory - Grandpa used to fry the heads, crack em, and eat the brains. He lived through the depression, so I guess he didn’t waste anything.

My x father in law, would make a gumbo with them including the head, when gumbo was ready to eat he would fish out the head and eat the brains...no thanks

Knew a fellow that grew up in the sticks of Tennessee. Said squirrels were breakfast food growing up and his Grandma kept a small hammer at the table to crack their skulls to get the brains out. Been a long time, but we used to eat pig brains sometimes when we'd butcher, I'll pass on the squirrel heads though. That's one of the last things I want to see floating around in my gumbo.

Favorites here are fried, then cooked down in gravy over rice, meat trimmed from bone then cooked in yellow rice, and parboiled and deboned for enchiladas

this

This but dumplings are good as well.

Crock pot! Any kind of meat can be made tender and delicious in the crock pot. I only use the crock pot for all my wild vittles, except fish or frogs legs which are fried.

For squirrels, just remove the quarters from the carcass, then separate the ribs from the backbone with meat scissors, so everything can lie flat in the bottom of the crock pot covered with fluid.

I cook my squirrels on high for 4 hours. They don't have to go super slow. That will get them tender enough to pick and slide the little bones right out of the meat.

Best and easiest recipe: cover ingarlic powder and onion powder, add salt and pepper to taste, toss a stick of butter or two on top and turn it on high. Stir once or twice!

Pick the bones out and chop the meat, add it to anything you like! Great for any kind of dip that calls for chicken. I like mine in tacos, or in buffalo "chicken" dip hehe. Also great stuffed in jalapenos wrapped in bacon!

Simple and easy!

I wasn't brought up in the great depression, but in the 60's it probably wasn't much difference where I grew up. My dad would take us squirrel hunting on weekends, my 2 brothers and myself. We'd get a bunch of squirrels and this is how we fixed them.
Clean squirrels put in a boiler w/water, and boil till meat fell off the bones. Sometimes if we had alot of older tougher squirrels, we'd use the pressure cooker (to soften 'em up) till the meat came off the bones.
Then take the (boneless) meat and put it in a cast-iron skillet on low heat. Pour in some BBQ sauce, add a little salt/pepper if you like.
Saute the meat in BBQ sauce until meat browns and BBQ has thickened. Put it on bread for a BBQ sandwich, enjoy.
Back in those days, there weren't too many BBQ sauces to get, and we only bought the cheap stuff bc we were poor. But it still tasted great.
So you can use whatever sauce you prefer. Nowadays, I like John Boy and Billy BBQ sauce. Yes, I still prepare it the same way my dad did 50+ yrs ago,
We also, after sauteing the meat, we'd make patty's big enough to fit on a piece of bread (but never too much as to hang over the bread), then layered/stacked the patties on wax paper. Paper wrapped and placed in the freezer. When we'd go hunting during the winter, we'd take only what we were going to eat for lunch. The meat was placed separately on the dashboard in the car, in direct sunlight. When we came back around noon, the meat would be warmed up. Then put on a piece of bread, and lunch was great. Dang, Life was Great.
Hope some of you like this, it's nothing great, but just a different way to prepare squirrel.

Lots of good stuff here folks, looking forward to trying some of these!

grey squirrels are tender. The red fox squirrels are tough. I stew them in broth until you can pull them off the bone and then put them in brunswick stew.

heck, we couldn't afford the bbqs or the bread

Those that have cooked squirrel - what internal temp do you cook squirrel to?

I have had them many ways but fried and fricasse/gumbo are best.
Looks like cooked till tender is what lots of people use. I am a cook to temp person with an instant read on beef pork steaks etc but the last time I made squirrels it was fried, soaked in milk egg s/p etc dredged in flour, pretty darn good. ( not as good as aunt Betty) Mainly the grey squirrels. But anything above 160 is fine though the longer methods with some kind of moisture preferred for tougher meats, but that applies to anything. . . I’m also a big supporter of brine when in doubt. Enjoy

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Crock pot till the meat falls off the bone then make squirrel and dumplings using cut up biscuits for dumplings. Good Stuff Maynard!

Pic is kind of blurry but that squirrel was this kids 1st and one of the fattest I have ever seen. We made a big deal out of it, he was super excited. I told him it must be part beaver. Turned it and a few of its buddies into gumbo that evening. Somebody brought homemade potato salad so we served it all together.

awesome setup you got there!

Thanks. It has been on its fair share of squirrel hunts.

This sounds good. Got to try this is.

Nothing better than an awesome camp cooking setup, but the food out in the woods.

Shake the tree, if the nuts rattle keep walking. Find a young one and better to pressure it some, batter and chicken fry with bisquits and gravey.

Crock Pot, Squirrels, Cream of Mushroom, White Onion & let it roll. Nothing tough about it.

I make squirrel pie. We put the squirrel meat deboned into the Ninja blender. We use baked sweet potatoes, a half cup of milk, two tablespoons of molasses or pure maple syrup and two tablespoons of cinnamon and two tablespoons of brown sugar. Put it all back in the blender and make a paste. Put this paste in pie crust and bake until the crust is golden brown.

I like to boil them, peel the meat off. Skillet fry it and then eat over skits and gravy

That is the way mom dose it. They generally came out tender.

I been preaching squirrel dumplins on the hunting forums since 2007. My mom had a killer recipe when I was a kid.