Braised Squirrel with Canterbury Sauce
I think you’ll like this braised squirrel recipe with mushrooms, bacon, and red wine.
I love the smell of squirrel cooking, which may sound weird, but I’m not the only one. I’m surprised more people don’t cook with these little guys as they make great dishes. Low and slow is the way to cook squirrel – and really any small game.
Looking for more squirrel recipes? Try this Bacon Fried Squirrel recipe or this Hillbilly Squirrel and Gravy recipe.
Braised Squirrel with Canterbury Sauce
I think you'll like this braised squirrel recipe with mushrooms, bacon, and red wine.
Servings: 4
Ingredients
- 3 squirrels quartered
- 1 cup flour
- 1 teaspoon each salt and pepper
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons bacon grease
- 1 tablespoon olive or vegetable oil
- 1 large yellow onion coarsely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 3 cups whole mushrooms smaller is better
- 2 medium carrots peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 3 celery stalks trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces
- 1/4 lb cooked bacon pre-cooked weight
- 1/4 cup chicken stock
- 1 1/4 cups dry red wine
- 2 tablespoons fresh parsley chopped
- 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 3 tablespoons tomato paste
- salt and pepper
Instructions
- Combine flour salt and pepper in a bowl. Dust squirrel pieces with the seasoned flour.
- Heat a large frying pan and melt the butter and bacon grease. Lightly brown the squirrel pieces evenly on all sides and transfer to a lightly greased casserole or baking dish.
- In another skillet (or clean the first one!), heat oil over medium heat and add onion, garlic, mushrooms, celery, carrots and cooked bacon. Cook until onions are translucent and not browned. Add chicken stock, wine, parsley, Italian seasoning and tomato paste, stirring over heat until the tomato paste dissolves.
- Pour over squirrel in the casserole dish. Cover and place in a preheated 325 degree oven for 2 – 3 hours or until meat begins to pull away easily from the bone. Turn squirrel pieces every 45 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper when done.
I tried this today and found it to be very good. Thanks for the recipe!
I used your recipe, but cooked it in the pressure cooker. It was EXCELLENT! Will use it for chicken and beef short ribs. And I bet it would be good with rabbit. Served over pappardelle. Excellent ! Thank you!