Gator Bites

Some time ago, my cousin gave me 2 pounds of alligator tail steaks. These were beautiful, thick steaks with a great color. Of course I decided to make 'gator bites out of them! This would be an amazing recipe to have for Mardi Gras, which is coming up in a couple of weeks.

Just to make it clear, these are from real alligators, not some fake fish thing..like most of the 'crab' you see in food now-a-days.

Tasty Tasty

I had never attempted gator bites, never found the meat actually or I would have! We had them quite often at Crawdaddy's down in Cookeville and they are delicious! They do tend to be a bit chewy and I have the fix for that! My next step was to find a recipe that was good enough to match the restaurant ones and also easy to fix. I had to look no further than Paula Deen, one of my favorite cooks. Her recipe is perfection.

This recipe needs to be deep fried to get the perfect taste and texture. You could bake them, but I am not sure how they would turn out..dryer probably and you don't really want that. I again used my awesome little Fry Daddy, which is the best deep fryer I have ever tried. Gets very hot and the food is about half as greasy as with any other I have used. I recommend one if you just need the occasional deep frying.

Don't be intimidated by Mr. Gator, it is not hard to fix at all. I have discovered that you really need to look over the meat and cut out any cartilage or gristly stuff that you find. It is not gross looking but you can feel it is tougher than the meat. That is what I think lends the toughness to the restaurant gator bites. It probably took me 10 minutes total to get all of it out of 2 pounds and it was well worth doing!

Here is the recipe directly from Ms. Deen.

Fried Gator Bites
I found this worked well for the 2 pounds I had.

• 1 pound alligator meat, cut into chunks (can substitute chicken or pork)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Flour, for dredging (about 2 cups)
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1 cup hot sauce
• 1 bottle store bought ranch dressing, for dipping

Heat a deep-fryer to 350 degrees F. (or use the Fry Daddy and don't worry about temperature)

Lightly season gator meat with salt and pepper prior to dredging them in flour. Combine buttermilk and hot sauce into 1 mixture. Dip the gator meat into the buttermilk and hot sauce mixture and dip, once again, in flour. Then place in deep fryer until golden brown, just a couple minutes. Drain on paper towels and serve with ranch dressing or remoulade.

And....

Here is a fantastic recipe for remoulade:

New Orleans Remoulade

• 1 pint mayonnaise
• 2 tablespoons Creole mustard
• 2  tablespoons grated onion
• 3 tablespoons prepared horseradish
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon white wine Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/4 teaspoon hot sauce

Combine all ingredients and mix well. It is better chilled for at least a couple of hours, but I can never wait that long to use it! Makes 2 1/4 cups sauce.