I realize the responses to this may be a bit limited, but it’s worth a shot.
My wife’s aunt has procured some gator tail meat, and since I’m the culinary tinkerer around these here parts, she’s asked me to cook it. I’ve eaten and like gator but I’ve only had it fried, so I’m thinking about doing it that way.
Anyone ever cook gator and if so, do you have any good recipes to share? Also, usually when I’ve gotten it, it comes with some type of dipping sauce. Can anyone recommend a recipe for that as well?
I’ve had it deepfried and “scampi broiled” with lemon, garlic, and butter. I’ve never actually cooked it before, but I assume it is much like cooking fish or chicken or shrimp- or somewhere in between all of those. The tail is the tender white meat of the gator so it doesn’t need to be overcooked or else it will get tough… the scampi broil style seemed like the gator had been done as quickly as shrimp, maybe around 5-7 minutes under the broiler, exact same technique. Note that it was also cut in bite sized chunks so it cooked through quickly. It was also tasty and very tender with the lemon garlic and butter dipping sauce. Very simple, and the sauce enhanced, rather than covered, the flavor of the gator.
Believe it or not, ideally, I’d probably opt for the exact same sauce as classic buffalo wings for my fried/deepfried and breaded gator. A good Cayenne Pepper Sauce like Frank’s Red Hot or Louisiana Brand Hot Sauce mixed with melted butter and a touch of Worcestershire. The butter will compensate for the extreme lean of the gator tail and give a nice flavor and “velvet”.
I love Thai Food and I would think that the flavor and fairly firm texture of Alligator would lend itself perfectly to a nice curry. This looks like a rather ambitious yet delicious recipe for Thai Jungle Curry that I thought was worth posting. Now, if I were making it, I would probably follow the first half of the recipe and use Prepared Thai Red Curry Paste from the Package rather than hunting down all of the disparate ingredients to make my own-
1 pound frog meat – *see note
3 Tablespoons Oil
5 cups chicken or pork broth
3 tbs. Fish Sauce – up to 4 tbs
1 tb date palm sugar – up to 2 tbs
1/4 cup pea eggplants – (or 6 Thai round eggplants
sliced in half)
1/2 cup bamboo shoots – thinly sliced
3 large Kaffir Lime leaves – torn into small pieces
2 Tbs. Krachai – (rhizome)
3 wax peppers – or Jalapenos finely slivered
1 medium Green Tomato firm cut into small wedges
1/2 cup baby corn
1/2 cup Thai Basil Leaves
Paste ingredients:
8 dried red peppers – (Thai Japanese hot ones)
1 tsp. white peppercorns – ground
1 tsp. coriander seeds – roasted and ground
6 fresh Thai chilies – up to 8 chopped
1 tsp. Thai galanga – finely chopped
1 stalk Lemon Grass – thinly sliced then chopped
1 tsp. Kaffir Lime Peel – finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Krachai Root – finely chopped
1 Head garlic – (small head) chopped (HEAD not clove)
1 tsp. Kapi – roasted (I put in tin foil packet and
put into toaster oven)
1/2 tsp. salt
Place prepared paste ingredients into mortar using pestle pound like
crazy and make paste. This will take some time and muscle. I always
have my husband do this part. Takes out any aggression!
Heat oil in medium pot and fry the paste until flavors and aromas are
released. Add broth and bring to a boil. Season with fish sauce and
sugar, and add the pea or Thai eggplants, Kaffir lime leaves, cut
Grachai, bamboo shoots, and frog (or other meat you are using). Cook a minute
or two and add the green tomatoes, baby corn, slivered peppers and
basil. Cook a few more minutes or until frog has been cooked through.
Serve with steamed Jasmine Rice
NOTES : Frog (legs are preferred by some but you can use the whole
edible part). Now if you really don’t want to use frog I guess you could
use alligator, firm fish fillets, or any kind of fowl.
I’ve always wanted to use gator tail in a chili recipe. Maybe roll in some Wondra and brown, then use like any other meat in a chili or gumbo recipe. For chili, I might go with a white chili, since gator meat is not a strong flavor.
I’ve only ever eaten it in restaurants, fried, so I’d love to know how this turns out.
I notice many recipes on the nets recommend soaking the gator tail in milk to leech out the gamey flavors, and that might be prudent with “wild gator”, but much of the gator that is available commercially, nowadays, is tender, farm raised, young gator and really doesn’t necessarily need the soaking, or even parboiling as I have also seen recommended. Is your gator farm raised or wild caught, Shark Sandwich?
I love munching on a gator but it is usually fried in a hot Louisiana kind of style but you can substitute it for lots of fish or fowl in many dishes. If you put it in something ordinary, most people wouldn’t even know but that isn’t very fun. It is really more important to pick the chicken/seafood dish that you want to make and use the alligator meat for it rather than try a custom fit because there isn’t really one specific thing it is best at it. It is more about the spicy style of cooking. Jambalaya would work as would gumbo or other stews. There are traditional sauces for it in Louisiana that are quite spicy and excellent that are on the web. Some are mayonaise based. I don’t think I have ever see alligator grilled but that should work as well. I have only eaten farmed alligator I believe though and I don’t know what differences older more, seasoned alligator meat tastes like.
The best alligator resource on the web is found here of course:
Yea, I’d probably go with some kind of stewing like that Jungle curry… a longer, wet, cook. That’s not to say it wouldn’t also be good fried, but it might do better slow stewed with some stronger complementing and acidic flavors like in a sauce piquant… or hey, how about, substituting gator for turtle in any number of Turtle Soup Recipes? They’re both reptiles after all!
I’ve had alligator three ways; sausage, breaded and fried, and blackened. I say ‘blackened’, but I’m not sure. Looked seasoned and seared, though. It was served with mayonnaise. The breaded-and-fried was served with Pick-A-Peppa and raspberry dipping sauces.
I’ve never made it myself, but I would try grinding together a Cajun rub and break out the cast-iron skillet. (Who am I kidding? The cast-iron skillet lives on my stove!)
Well, I made it tonight. Fried it, and mixed the flour with heavy doses of garlic power, onion power, cayenne pepper, and paprika. Served it with sliced lemon, and made a few different dipping sauces, but the favorite sauce was a honey-habenero sauce.
Everyone raved about it. I’m looking forward to making a stew with some of the meat in the future.
That sounds yummy. I live in Godforsaken Massachusetts now and while it is possible to buy alligator meat here, it is expensive and not really fresh. You made my mouth water.