Fried Squirrel- How to Prepare this Delicious American Delicacy

Fried squirrel is one of my favorite dishes. What a delicious and healthy source of food that is so abundant in the Midwest, and across the country for that matter. Every time I bite into a golden, crispy, salty piece, I’m taken back to my childhood.

 Squirrels were one of the first hunting experiences I had as a child growing up. In a way, I hate to admit this, but my dad found out I was trying to get squirrels with a BB gun. This was followed by a fatherly discussion on how a BB gun doesn’t have the power to kill a squirrel and this simply wasn’t ethical. However, much to my surprise, it wasn’t long after that I was given my first real gun. It was a single shot, bolt action .22, and boy was I proud.

After getting my .22 for Christmas, I became a hunting machine. We had a large piece of wooded property across the field that my family farmed. It wasn’t wise for a squirrel to call this place home. I had this hunting thing figured out in no time and it was nothing for me to get a limit every time I went.

Looking back on it, I’m kind of surprised that my mom would drop whatever dinner plans she had and prepare some wild game that I happened to bring home. She was raised by a rabbit hunter, and would often cook rabbits that my grandpa and I would drag in. My wife isn’t as much of a team player, so I had to learn to prepare them in my adult life.

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Eating Squirrel is not gross!

Before I get to the recipe, I want to try and combat something the best that I can. It is not gross to eat squirrels! I don’t know how many times I have been teased and looked at with disgust when I mention eating Squirrel. There were several laughs and gasps of astonishment when people heard that we had squirrel the first time my daughter brought her boyfriend to our house. I have heard countless people respond to the conversation with a big EWWW! My wife is one of these people. And she hasn’t changed her mind. So maybe this section is being written in vain.

However, I want to ask you a question. Do you like bacon? I would assume that the answer is yes. My next question would be, have you ever seen a pig? I don’t need to say anything else. I could say the same about chickens and many other animals that are considered “OK” to eat.

Squirrel is good for your health

A squirrel is a very neat and clean animal. They keep themselves clean and eat a diet of nutritious tree nuts………and that’s pretty much it! I believe it’s this diet that gives them a wonderful flavor. Furthermore, squirrels are packed with vitamins, minerals, and tons of protein. They are low in fat which in turn makes them low in calories. That is before we coat them and fry them.

If you are into eating organic, hormone-free, pesticide free, and non-GMO, an animal that eats exclusively tree nuts is a pretty safe food source. For more info on the health benefits, check out this article.

Hunting

Squirrel hunting itself is one of the most fun things you can do in my opinion. This is where most hunters get their start. This is usually a father and son or father and daughter sport where good lessons are usually taught. I won’t go into much detail on how to hunt because I have already written about that. You can find that post here.

Preparing- OUTSIDE

Now that we have our squirrels, we need to get them into a state that is acceptable to bring into the kitchen and not trigger your wife and ruin the night. We want them to look like groceries when we bring them in, not a furry animal. I usually do the preparing in the barn before coming in the house. However last time, my wife decided to come outside and talk while this was happening. Her response was the typical EWWW! My response was “We just went hunting! What do you think was happening out here?”

Skinning the Squirrel

The first thing we need to do is remove the skin. We need to do this in a way that avoids getting hair on the meat. When hair does get on the meat it is a horridly long process to remove it. With this in mind, I like to use the “tail method”. It’s quick and easy and happens to be the best way I have found to avoid the “hair problem”. There are tons of videos on YouTube that demonstrate this method. The basics of this are to make a cut with your knife at the base of the tail. This cut should go all the way through the tail and will begin to skin down the squirrel’s back. This cut needs to be about two inches wide. It will take some practice.

After you make the cut, stand on the tail with the heel of your foot and pull up by the back legs. If you made your cut correctly, all the skin will come off in one piece and all the way off the head. You will be left with a small section of skin on the hind end. You can simply peel this down and off in a single pull.

After the skin has been removed, you will have to remove the head, feet, and guts. Rinse thoroughly with cold water, and you have something that looks more like groceries. The gruesome part is over.

Preparing in the kitchen

Even though we used the tail method to avoid getting hair on the meat, there is bound to be some left. Rinse the squirrel thoroughly and use your fingers to remove all the hair.

When everything is clean, I like to disassemble the squirrel into manageable pieces. The hind legs can be removed easily by cutting around the leg with a knife and then popping the leg out at the hip joint. Just push the leg back toward the spine and it will pop out.

The front legs can be removed with the shoulders intact by cutting along the ribs up toward the armpits. You may have to use a bit of a twist and pull at the end.

Once the shoulders are removed, take the section of the spine with the “backstraps” or loins intact. You can cut around the spine at the base of the ribs and then give a bend and twist to separate from the ribs.

Some people split the rib cage into two pieces and fry these as well. I will leave that up to you. There isn’t much there.

Soak or Cook

Now that you have the squirrel segmented into manageable pieces, we have two options. We can soak them in the refrigerator or go ahead and cook them now. If these are fox squirrels, I would soak them for a while. Fox Squirrels can be tough and gamey. They do much better if they’re soaked for a day or two. Some even say to soak wild game in milk to remove gaminess.

Soaking in salt water is also a good idea for any wild game. This removes blood from the meat and makes the experience more enjoyable.

If these are gray squirrels and there isn’t much blood, can go ahead and cook.

The trick that I have found to making good squirrel is to pressure cook them before frying them. This is especially good for fox squirrels, or old male squirrels that tend to be a bit tough. Nobody likes tough meat. We need to prepare it correctly.

The Cook!

• Start by adding at least a quarter inch of liquid into the pot. I prefer to use chicken broth or chicken bone broth. This just adds a layer of flavor that I love.
• Place the pieces into the pot and secure the lid. Pressure cook the pieces for 12 minutes and let the pressure release on its own for 10 minutes.
• While the pressure cooker is running, prepare a bowl with 1 egg and 1 cup of milk. If you were lucky enough to kill a lot of squirrels, you may have to double or triple this.
• Prepare another bowl with 1-2 cups of flour. Maybe more if you have a lot. I like to keep this simple and just use flour. We will salt at the end.
• After 10 minutes, release the remaining pressure safely and then remove the lid.
• Set the pieces aside and pour out the broth. This would be great to use in another dish or pour it over your dog’s food. They love it.
• Put oil into a pan or deep fryer and heat to 350 degrees. I like to cook with avocado oil. It has a high smoke point and excellent health benefits. This is always a better idea than using seed oils in my honest opinion.
• Fry the pieces until golden brown.
• Remove the pieces and salt as quickly as possible. This is key for making tasty fried food.
• Let them rest for 5 to 10 minutes and serve.

For this recipe I used a Ninja Foodi. This is a pressure cooker and air fryer/. In fact, it does more than these two functions.

Check out the one I use here. Ninja Foodi- https://amzn.to/3uRdir6

Fried squirrel is very similar to fried chicken. In fact, it’s very similar to chicken wings. Enjoy these with your favorite wing sauce or make some gravy and have them the old-fashioned way.

Good Luck