Frog Leg Piccata

Eating wild meat. It's so healthy for you! Add in an invasive species to your dish & you can't go wrong!

Here is a recipe that we tried & adored from invasivore.org. They have some fantastic information & stellar recipes for the bravely embracing invasivore chef! 🐸

Frog Leg Piccata

There are so many possibilities for preparing frog legs (deep fry, pan fry, bake, broil, etc), and here we tried a derivation of a chicken piccata recipe.  This dish, originally prepared by Sheina Sim in March 2012, served two people.

Ingredients for frog leg preparation:

• 1 lb American bullfrog legs, skinned, rinsed, and patted dry
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp garlic powder
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 2 T butter
• 1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions for frog leg preparation:

1. Melt butter over low medium heat
2. Add minced garlic and heat until aromatic
3. Mix flour, garlic powder, chili powder, and paprika
4. Salt and pepper both sides of frog legs  
5. Dredge frog legs in flour mixture and shake off excess
6. Raise heat of the garlic and butter pan to medium (not too hot to burn garlic)
7. Pan fry floured frog legs until one side is golden brown, then flip and do the same to the other side (about 2-3 minutes on each side depending on thickness of legs; take care not to overcook!)  
8. Remove frog legs from heat and set on paper towels

Ingredients for sauce:

• 3 T butter
• 1 shallot, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 T capers
• Juice from 1/2 lemon
• 1/2 lb crimini mushrooms sliced
• 1/2 can quartered artichokes
• 10 – 15 grape tomatoes
• 2 handfuls spinach leaves

Instructions from sauce:

1. After removing frog legs from heat, melt remaining butter
2. Stir in the chopped shallots and minced garlic, heat until shallots are soft and translucent and garlic is aromatic
3. Pour in white wine to deglaze the pan (also makes for easy clean up!)
4. Heat until white wine has reduced to half the volume
5. Add capers, lemon juice, and mushrooms
6. Cook mushrooms until browned on both sides
7. Place the artichokes and tomatoes in the mixture and cook for another 2-3 minutes
8. Turn down heat to low and add spinach.  Toss until all the leaves are covered in sauce.
9. Allow to simmer and top with pan fried frog legs when ready to serve.

We served the dish with a fresh loaf of sourdough bread (perfect for sopping up the piccata sauce) and a steamed artichoke. The frog legs turned out very lean and mild in flavor, though distinctly tasting of fish with the texture of poultry.  I would not say, “it tastes just like chicken,” but that simile isn’t too far off.  The pile of cleaned frog bones in the end seemed to indicate high approval of this dish.

Recipes for the Bold!

What a great recipe to experiment with if you're exploring eating wild meat. When we recreated this recipe, we opted to do a gluten free, dairy free, sugar free version. We chose to substitute avocado oil for the butter and any gluten-free flour substitute should do the trick. We also used wild-harvested chanterelles in place of the crimini mushrooms. It was our experience that this recipe lends itself well to substitutions of the imagination! 🐸