squirrel

This is a classic Italian agnolotti recipe that normally uses chicken or rabbit for the filling; feel free to use these meats. Serve this filled pasta with a simple brown butter, sage and some nuts. I like to use pine nuts. If you make more than you can eat at one sitting, freeze them uncooked on a plate or baking sheet, then bag them up.&nbsp;

Agnolotti with Brown Butter and Sage

light meat, (rabbit, chicken, quail, squirrel)

olive oil

carrot, chopped

celery stalks, chopped

onion, chopped

bay leaves

sherry or white wine

broth, chicken, rabbit

ricotta cheese

parmesan cheese

tarragon, parsley or fresh oregano

egg, lightly beaten

Nutmeg, salt and black pepper

flour, (about 2 heaping cups)

eggs, lightly beaten

egg yolks, beaten with the whole eggs

unsalted butter

pine nuts

sage leaves, sliced thin

Brown the meat in the olive oil, removing the pieces as they brown. Add the chopped carrot, celery and onion and saute this until translucent. Add the bay leaves, sherry and broth and return the squirrel pieces to the pot. Bring to a simmer, cover and cook until the meat wants to fall off the bones. 

Fish out the meat and debone it. Chop roughly and put the meat into a food processor. Pulse it into an almost-paste. Let it cool in a bowl. Once the meat is cool, add all the remaining filling ingredients and mix well.&nbsp;

MAKE THE FILLING

While the meat is cooking, make the pasta dough. Mix all the pasta ingredients together in a bowl and knead well for about 5 minutes. Wrap in plastic wrap and let the dough sit an hour to hydrate, or vacuum seal and it&#x27;ll hydrate immediately. 

MAKE THE PASTA DOUGH

Once the dough has hydrated and the filling is ready, cut the pasta into five pieces. Keep all but the piece you are working on wrapped in plastic so it doesn't dry out.&nbsp;

Roll out the pasta into long, thin rectangles. On my Atlas pasta roller, I roll to No. 7, which is two settings away from the thinnest, which is No. 9. That'll give you an idea how thin to roll it.&nbsp;

Place a teaspoon of filling at intervals on the pasta sheet. Remember you are folding over this sheet, so put the filling about halfway down the sheet. Fold the sheet over the filling. Using the thumb and forefinger of both hands, pinch the pasta over the filling to seal, pushing out all the air.&nbsp;

Use a ravioli cutter to even out the edge of the whole sheet where the top and bottom come together. Discard that little bit of pasta. Use the same ravioli roller to separate each agnolotto. Set them on a baking sheet dusted with semolina flour or corn meal. Repeat with the remaining dough.

MAKE THE AGNOLOTTI

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add enough salt to make the water taste salty. Boil the agnolotti until they float, and then 1 minute more.&nbsp;

Meanwhile, heat the butter in a large pan, ideally non-stick. Add the sage and toasted pine nuts and let this fry over medium heat. When the agnolotti are cooked, move them to this pan, toss to coat with the sage brown butter and pine nuts, and serve at once.&nbsp;

TO FINISH

This hearty soup is the classic flavor you know and love, but with protein from limb chickens rather than real chickens. Squirrel meat is a little darker than most poultry, creating a richer, more savory broth. This is a delicious recipe that the whole family will love.

Squirrel Noodle Soup

squirrels

onion,

carrots, sliced

celery sticks, sliced

head of garlic, chopped (6-8 cloves)

Bouquet garni: sprigs of fresh thyme, rosemary, and parsley

lemon, juiced

black pepper

poultry stock (16 cups), plus more if needed

egg noodles

Salt and pepper

Break the skinned squirrels down into 6 serving pieces by cutting off all four legs at the hip and shoulder joints, then cutting the body in half. Season each piece with salt and pepper.

Heat a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of cooking fat and brown the squirrel pieces, making sure to not over-crowd the pan. Work in batches and add more oil or clarified butter if needed. After each piece has browned, remove and set aside.

Add another tablespoon of cooking oil to the pan. Once the fat shimmers, add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the celery, carrots, and garlic. Continue to sauté until they begin to soften.

Return the squirrel to the pot and squeeze lemon juice over the top. Drop in the bouquet garni and season with black pepper. Pour in all of the stock and stir to combine.

Increase the heat until the liquid just barely begins to bubble, then reduce it to low and maintain a gentle simmer. You can skim scum off the top as it cooks. Cook for roughly 3 hours, or longer, until the meat is fork-tender. Don’t cover the stock pot while cooking so that the liquid reduces into a rich and flavorful broth.

Use tongs to fish out each piece of squirrel and the bouquet garni. Use your fingers or a fork to shred the meat off the bones. Discard the bones and place the shredded meat back in the pot.

Increase the heat so that the soup comes to a boil. Add the egg noodles, one handful at a time until you reach the desired amount. Gently simmer the soup until the egg noodles are soft, about 10 minutes. Add more stock if the soup reduced too much, or if the ratio of noodles-to-liquid is off.

Season to taste with salt and pepper. Garnish with chopped celery or parsley leaves if desired.

This is one of the best Sunday stews you can make because the leftovers reheat beautifully all week, for either a quick supper or for lunches at work. Don't worry if you don't have squirrel, venison and pheasant. The only true rule in burgoo seems to be that you need at least three different meats, so let your imagination wander: Chicken is obvious, as is pork. But lamb, rabbit, hare, other game birds, duck, muskrat, whatever. It'll all get hammered into submission in this stew regardless.

Kentucky Burgoo

vegetable oil

venison, (3

pheasant legs/thighs, (bone-in)

green pepper, (chopped)

onion, (chopped)

carrots, (chopped)

celery ribs, (chopped)

garlic cloves, (chopped)

pheasant or chicken stock

beef stock

tomatoes

potatoes

lima beans

Worcestershire sauce

Tabasco or other hot sauce

Pour the oil into a large Dutch oven or soup pot and set the heat to medium-high. Working in batches, brown all the meats. Do not crowd the pan or the meat will not brown well. Salt the meat as it cooks. As they brown, move the various meats to a bowl.

Add the onions, carrots, celery and green pepper to the pot and turn the heat to high. Cook the vegetables until they are well browned; you might need to add a little more oil to the pot. When the vegetables have browned, add the garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add back the meats, along with the chicken and beef broths and the tomatoes. Stir to combine and add salt to taste. Bring to a simmer, cover, reduce the heat and simmer gently for 2 hours.

Fish out the meat pieces. Strip the pheasant and squirrel off the bone. Tear the large pieces of venison into bite-sized pieces. The reason you did not do this right at the start is because venison will stay moister when it cooks in larger pieces. Return all the meat to the pot and return the stew to simmer.

Peel and cut the potatoes into chunks about the same size as the meat pieces. Add them to the stew and simmer until they are tender. Add the Worcestershire sauce, mix well and taste for salt. Add more Worcestershire sauce to taste if needed.

Finally, add the corn and lima beans. Mix well and cook for at least 10 minutes, or longer if you’d like. Serve with cornbread and a bottle of hot sauce on the side.

This is a very hearty and satisfying dish. I wouldn’t change the proportion of secondary ingredients at all. I used 1 1/2 lbs. of stew beef and 3 chicken pieces and I simmered those in the crushed tomatoes and broth for 2 hours before adding the sautéed vegetables, shredding the chicken, then cooking for another 2 hours.
Very, very good. Thanks!

The perfect recipe when you have a little of everything in the freezer. Except muskrat. Leave muskrat out.

Thanks Hank! I tried it just like recipe says and used Wild Rabbit, Fallow deer and chicken thighs. Was truly amazing ! Everyone loved it.

Made this today and it turned out great. I used chicken drumsticks instead of pheasant. Even my mother, who didn't like the idea of eating squirrel, seemed to enjoy it.

Been doing this one past couple hunting seasons this year duck buck and beaver. Omg amazing I’m so glad I stumbled upon this web site!!!!

I love this recipe. I like it best with deer shanks and squirrel. I also add okra as it usually appears in burgoo in my part of ky.

This is one of the most versatile recipes that I know of for random meats in it and it still being delicious. As Mr. Shaw says in his book "they'll all get hammered into submission". I have used ham hock, chuck eye steak from a milk cow, venison rump roast, venison shank, squirrel, chicken, squirrel, and cottage style bacon in various recipes and they were all good.

Thanks, Hank. Went looking for a woodchuck recipe after hubs collected a small and tender one chowing down in our garden (having dug their way under the fence).  Tonight's Kentucky burgoo was that fresh meat, plus a venison quad steak, and a substantial Canada goose breast from our neighbor. Limas, and previously blanched chopped collards rounded out a scrumptious feast. Tomorrow it will unquestionably be even more delish.

There are a lot of ways you can play with this dish. You can use rabbit or chicken instead of squirrel, you can red wine instead of white wine, red vinegar instead of cider, kielbasa instead of smoked Portuguese sausages, collards instead of wild greens etc, etc. Have fun with it. The only trick to this stew is to build the flavors bit by bit. Not everything needs as long to cook as, say, squirrel legs. Follow my instructions on when you put in each ingredient and you'll be fine.

Squirrel Stew with Paprika and Greens

squirrels,

Salt

Flour

onion

garlic cloves, (minced)

tomato paste

white wine

cider vinegar

savory

red pepper flakes

paprika

smoked sausage, (such as kielbasa

greens, (kale, chard, collards, wild greens, etc)

Salt the squirrel pieces well and then dust in flour. Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven or other heavy, lidded pot over medium-high heat. Brown the squirrels in batches, being sure to not overcrowd the pot. Move the browned pieces to a plate or cutting board while you cook the rest.

When the squirrels have been nicely browned, remove them all from the pot and add the onion. Saute the onion until it just begins to brown on the edges, about 6 to 8 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute. Add the tomato paste, mix well and cook this for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring often.

Pour in the white wine, vinegar and about 1 quart of water. Add the savory, red pepper flakes and paprika, then the torn-up tomatoes, then the squirrel. Mix well and bring to a simmer. Add salt to taste and cook gently until the squirrel wants to fall off the bone, about 90 minutes. Fish out all the squirrel pieces and pull them off the bone -- this makes the stew a lot easier to eat. Return them to the pot.

Add the smoked sausage and the greens and cook until the greens are done, about 10 minutes (If you are using collards, they need more than 10 minutes to cook so adjust accordingly). Add salt, black pepper, chile and vinegar to taste and serve with crusty bread.

Outstanding recipe! Will be my new go-to squirrel recipe. Used 3 gray squirrels, collard greens (no chard at the store but some really pretty, young collards), and smoked chorizo.  If using collards, put them into cook about 15-20 minutes before adding the sausage.

I made this today and really enjoyed it. I had a big old fox squirrel and a young red squirrel. I cut the recipe to feed 4. I didn’t dredge the pieces in flour as I’ve noticed I don’t really care for the result. I like the broth more liquid. Thanks for the recipe, my guests also enjoyed it.

I had the privilege of being present when Hank put this recipe together. Simply done,  and simply delicious!

This is a fantastic recipe. I love that as long as the base ingredients are there, you can tweak it to your liking or by what you have on hand. I made this with two cottontail rabbits from the freezer (my wife refuses to eat squirrels), turnip greens, smoked Portuguese linguica, and the bottom of a bottle of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio. Simmered with the lid off for half of the cooking time because I wanted something between a soup and a stew. We will absolutely be making this again.

Fantastic recipe. Works great on any squirrel, but is an especially great way to use the old tough ones or any that get freezer burn.

This is really good. I shot a huge incidental grey squirrel while quail hunting recently and made this recipe. I threw in some quail since I only had the one squirrel as well as a bunch of collards. The wife and kids loved it served over egg noodles.

Amazing recipe. I had my neighbors all asking for the recipe and they thought they would never eat squirrel meat. Thank you!!!

Excellent, as usual.  I have yet to go wrong with any of Hank's recipes.  Had a couple  squirrels plaguing the bird feeders. No longer.  Waste not, want not - went to my favorite game cooking site to see what goodness could be had from the two offenders.  This recipe was phenomenal.  So much so, that our walnut grove island in cornfield-central is now a squirrel sanctuary.  Letting them build up their numbers, so we can have a good source of critters for this recipe.

I eat squirrel almost as often as I eat venison.  And this is my favorite squirrel recipe!  I use collards for the greens.  They are just the right texture.  The last time I made this, I used some home-made smoked Italian venison sausage.  It was great!

Hank,

I made this recipe yesterday, and it is phenomenal.  But, that's to be expected as I've never made one of your dishes when that wasn't the case.  The reason that I write is that my wife ate it and loved it as well.  This is a big deal, as she has adamantly refused to eat squirrel her entire life.  She loves elk, deer, etc.  but squirrel has always been the bridge to far for her palate.  No longer!

There are a number of hacks and subs you can do here. First, you can use any white meat for the filling. Rabbit, turkey, pheasant, quail, partridge and yes, chicken would all be fine. Next, you can skip the acorn flour and just use a whole wheat or some other darkish flour your like. Third, you can use regular walnuts for the black walnuts... or use whatever nut makes you happy. 

Squirrel Pies

acorn flour

white whole wheat flour, (or regular AP flour)

baking powder

salt

milk

duck fat, lard, butter

bacon fat

cabbage

squirrel meat

toasted, chopped black walnuts

Cavender's seasoning, or black pepper

chicken

sorghum syrup

gruyere, emmental or jarlsberg cheese ((optional))

Mix the flours, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. In a small pot, heat the milk until it's steaming, then turn off the heat. Stir in the fat until it's mostly melted in; a few bits that aren't melted are fine.&nbsp;

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry with a fork until it's a shaggy mass. Knead this all together until you have a smooth ball, then shape it into a cylinder. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and set it in the fridge for at least 2 hours and up to overnight.&nbsp;

MAKE THE DOUGH

Heat the bacon fat in a large pan over medium-high heat and add the cabbage and onions. Saute until softened, about 6 to 8 minutes. Salt this as it cooks. Add the squirrel meat, apple, walnuts and Cavender's seasoning (or black pepper), stir well and cook for a few minutes.&nbsp;

Stir the sorghum syrup in with the stock until combined, then pour this into the pan with everything else. Stir this well and let it cook another few minutes so the ingredients absorb the liquid. Turn off the heat and let the filling cool.&nbsp;

If you have a tortilla press, get it out and cut a heavy plastic bag apart to make two plastic sheets that you'll use to keep the dough off the metal of the press. If you don't have a press, lay out a work space and flour it well.&nbsp;

Cut the dough into anywhere between 8 and 10 pieces, trying to keep them about the same size. Put half the pieces back in the fridge. Roll a piece into a flat, disc and set it on a piece of plastic on the press. Put the other piece of plastic over it and squash the dough into a thin disc. I find that I do one squeeze, then adjust the dough so it's perfectly centered in the tortilla press.&nbsp;If you don't have a press, roll the dough balls into flat discs about 1/8 of an inch thick.&nbsp;

Remove the dough from the plastic and put about 1/4 cup of filling on one side of the disc. Sprinkle some shredded cheese on top if you'd like. Fold over the dough to make a half-moon and seal. Crimp the edges with a fork and set on a floured baking sheet. Repeat with the rest of the dough.&nbsp;

Bake at 400F for 25 minutes. Move to a cooling rack for about 10 minutes before you eat them. Best served hot, but they'll keep for a week or so in the fridge and are pretty good cold, too.&nbsp;

MAKE THE PIES

I got a squirrel yesterday and want to try and eat it.  I'm a little uncertain but we live in the country and they are vegetarian so I can't believe they'll go that wrong.
Interested by the comment of trying to hunt them where they are hunted - I've noticed with the animals I hunt that their reaction to 'certain humans' is clearly different.  I suppose squirrels will be the same but the ones I usually see are almost tame which tells you about their lives.

I started this recipe but found the filling was so delicious that I never made the pies. I ate the filling, all of it, straight out of the mixing bowl. Come fall I will try again. Hopefully I can resist long enough to complete the pies.

This is what every squirrel was born to be.  A perfect little pie that you can wrap in a napkin and jam in your pocket (there will be crumbs).  High in calories, just the thing for sitting and waiting for deer.

The squirrel obsession started a few years ago when invasive eastern fox squirrels started a hard invasion of the neighborhood.  Within a year all of the native Western Gray Squirrels had disappeared, along with the pileated wood peckers.  I was crushed to see my neighborhood buddies vanish and  searched for ways to help them come back.  That's when it dawned on me, the surest way to get rid of a problem is to eat it!

  So eat the fox squirrels I did.  My bird feeder became a place of death, handed out justly by a pudgy guy with a  22.  The squirrel numbers have slowly tapered off, but my appetite for them has not.  Every fox squirrel I see now appears to my eyes as a cartoonish running pie, for that is their destiny.

Hank, I’m in the process of making a batch of these. I was wondering if I can freeze them after assembly to bake down the road some time?

"Long ago I graduated to hunting much bigger and glamorous game, in places where the terrain and scenery could not be much more different from that gentle land. But those squirrels of my youth have never journeyed very far out of mind, and that is a good thing...I long to hunt squirrels."

I also long to eat them - once again. I never had them prepared like this though - and I can only imagine - what's not to like? And, Acorn Flour You Say? Never would have thought of that! Thanks...

The average yeld of estern grey squirrel dressed and deboned is around 8 oz.  Reduced some  in that depending on damaged meat from projectiles if hunted.
Also depending one size of game, average adult is .8 to 1.3 pounds but that can vary.

It sounds like a Cornish party but with squirrel instead of beef.

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Top 5 squirrel recipes from across the web

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The most viewed squirrel recipes by Recipe Cart users, saved from over 6,000 sites. Or, go to our Recipe Search Engine