Scratch-Made Squirrel and Dumplings

Perhaps the most commonly dismissed if not outright maligned game animal in the woods of North America, the ever abundant squirrel can provide surprisingly delicious table fare when prepared with the respect and dignity it deserves.

These animals abound in the woods of North America, from the forested peaks of Southern Appalachia to the Rocky Mountain front and everywhere in between and beyond. In some parts of the South, hunters pursue them with with dogs—usually a cur or fiests. In others area they simply stalk the woods in silence waiting for the acrobatic tree dwellers to make their presence known. 

Too often hunters cut their teeth on squirrel hunting only to abandon the art later in life in favor of bigger, more elusive quarry. Luckily, there seems to be a squirrel renaissance afoot as of late, as more and more hunters take to the woods to reclaim the glory of the old bushy tail. 

But along with this increased interest in hunting the humble and abundant  squirrel comes a responsibility to know how best to prepare it.

It’s most common preparation, wether you’re talking the substantially sized fox variety or it’s more diminutive grey cousin, is without a doubt the chicken fried treatment. When served alongside a pair of cat head biscuits with white sawmill gravy, fried squirrel becomes an irresistible comfort food of the wild game variety. 

From time to time, though, you should elevate the culinarily prowess with which you prepare your limit of bushy tails for the table, less the superior quality of its acorn sweetened flesh be lost to the ages.

For me, that meant finally breathing life into an old Appalachian recipe I’d often read about but never actually attempted in my own kitchen: scratch-made squirrel and dumplings. 

I first came across a recorded version of this recipe while thumbing through my cherished copy of The Foxfire Book of Appalachian Cookery. It was credited to a North Carolina mountain woman named Gladys Nichols and featured alongside a recipe for braised possum with root vegetables.

Like most people, I grew up eating and thoroughly enjoying the occasional bowl of home-made chicken and dumplings, and I thought it unlikely that this wilder counterpart would meet, let alone surpass, the chicken and dumplings of my youth.

Maybe it was the satisfaction of knowing I’d harvested and meticulously butchered and prepared the meat myself or the knowledge that a squirrel’s free range lifestyle—particularly the variety that I was eating which hailed from the acorn-laden hardwoods of north central Kentucky—is far healthier than the pitifully cooped up existence of America’s favorite meat bird.

Whatever the reason, this batch of squirrel and dumplings put every prior version of chicken and dumplings I’d ever eaten to utter and outright shame.

Try it for yourself with the recipe below.

Ingredients

3-4 squirrels skinned and quartered

4 cups stock, preferably of the wild game variety 

2 cups all purpose flour

2 eggs

2 table spoons melter butter

Salt 

Pepper

Procedure

Salt and pepper your quartered squirrels, then brown them in a hot cast iron skillet  before placing them in a Croc-Pot and covering in a brown stock of your choosing. Let them cook down until the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender (6-8 hours on low in my case).

From there, pick the meat and discard bones—or save them for a future batch of stock—then strain and set aside your broth.

Place both meat and broth in the fridge while you prepare the dumpling dough. For the dough I used about two cups all-purpose flour, a few tablespoons melted butter, two backyard eggs and a few teaspoons of kosher salt. Knead this into a tight ball and let it rest for short period of time.

While the dough is resting coat a wooden cutting board with flour, then take a workable piece of your dough ball and roll it thin on your cutting board. A 22 oz beer or cider bottle works great in the absence of a proper rolling pin. 

Use a pizza cutter or a sharp knife to cut the thinly rolled dumpling dough into relatively thin, rectangular pieces. Repeat this process until all the dough is rolled and cut, placing the pre-cooked dumplings on wax parchment paper as you go.

When dumpling are cut and ready, bring your stock to a boil on the stove. When you’ve achieved a rolling boil, begin dropping your dumpling into the stock one by one. Let them cook and soften up for about ten to fifteen minutes before adding the picked squirrel meat along with a tbsp or so of corn starch to thicken it up. Salt and pepper  and spice to your liking then serve with pride.