In areas that abound in grey squirrels, like southern New Hampshire, you can make a fun and challenging hunt and great tasting meal for 2 to 4 in no time. All you need is a license to hunt, follow the laws in your state and go hunting in squirrel season. Here in New Hampshire it usually starts in September but check with Fish and Game on the internet for licensing and dates.  I hunt them in full camo with a face mask and wait quietly like I was turkey hunting. If they ID your face, they are gone or chatter for hours alerting the world of your presence.

You can hunt squirrel typically with a .22 caliber such as .22 long rifle or a shotgun like a a .410 or 20 gauge. Years ago I used to hunt them with bow and arrow too. I prefer a .22 with a scope. It takes about 3 squirrels to serve 4. You can freeze pieces till you get enough to cook. With your squirrels, gutted, skinned, cleaned, cut with a sharp knife, and meat scissors and inspected for pellets(I separate the legs and cut the torso in half) coat the pieces in flour and brown them in olive oil in a large skillet for 10 minutes or so till four crusts a bit. Then toss them in your pressure cooker for 10 minutes with 1 1/2 cups beef broth , 1/2 cup red wine, 2 bay leaves, 1 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp black pepper (fresh ground is best). Or toss them and veggies into a crock-pot in the morning with veggies and cook them all day or till tender.

Squirrel Stew

Now you have very tender squirrel that can be stewed with potato, carrots, celery, onion, and a few minced cloves of garlic. You can southernize it with dumplings too. If the liquid is too thin, you can thicken with a flour/butter roux or use cornstarch ( a tablespoon cornstarch in 1/4 cup water) add slowly to your stew while bubbling to get a gravy like consistency. Salt and pepper to taste. Enjoy! A fresh sliced baguette with butter helps sop up the juice, if you omit the dumplings!

Tacos too!!

Or you can pull the meat off the bones easily if pressure cooked and make fajitas, tacos with your meat sauted in a sauce and use soft shells to add lettuce tomato, onion and salza and sour cream over the meat. Another thought is to freeze the cooked pulled meat and vacuum seal it for later use. I would freeze for a week or two to maintain fresh flavors.

Squirrel Pot Pie!!

If you have enough meat you can make a delicious squirrel pot pie with a pie crust, peas and carrots in a squirrel or beef gravy piping hot. Serve with mashed potato’s.

Enjoy! Good Hunting and Good Eating!

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