Coot and Corn Chowder Recipe
This thick, rich, creamy Coot and Corn Chowder recipe is packed with American Coot breast meat. THE COOT AND CORN CHOWDER RECIPEOur 8-year-old daughter has some pretty adventurous eating habits. She eats minced garlic by the tablespoon and has gobbled up duck heart ceviche with her dad. So it wasn't a stretch to feed her a hearty chowder chock full of mud hen meat.On a crisp fall day like we're having here in North Dakota, a hearty chowder is one of the best meals to hit the spot and warm your body. This particular chowder recipe uses a combination of bacon, coot, corn, and potatoes as its main ingredients, and it's every bit as delicious as it sounds.THE AMERICAN COOT (FULICA AMERICANA)The American Coot, also known as the mud hen, can be found on almost every slough across North Dakota. It appears to be a black duck with a white beak. But it's actually not a duck at all. It doesn't have webbed feet like a duck, but instead has big greenish talons that are not at all fun to mess with. My advice is to be sure the bird is dead before you pick it up.CAN YOU EAT COOT?Like the vast majority of waterfowlers, I was taught to ignore the primal urge to shoot the bobbling head black bird. "They taste awful!" "They're inedible!" For over 20 years, this "black duck with white beak" bird has been taunting me. It has joined the ranks of the big questions of life:1. Who am I?2. Where did I come from?3. Why am I here?4. Can you eat coot?Lately, there has been an incessant war being fought within my consciousness. On one side are the social pressures influencing my decision making of what kind of recipes to cook. On the other is my yearning to shrug off the haters of all things unfamiliar, and just try to eat a coot. COOT HUNTING SEASONThere will always be rules, taboos, and ideals when it comes to cooking food for human consumption. But when there is an actual coot hunting season here in North Dakota, and a generous daily limit of 15 birds, it should peak our interest to at least shoot and eat one American Coot…at least once!On the Louisiana coast, the Cajun word for coot is pouldeau, from French for "coot", poule d'eau – literally "water hen". Coot is sometimes used in Cajun cooking for making things like gumbo. So why is it acceptable for Cajuns to eat coot and not Midwesterners? I had to find out!WHAT DOES A COOT EAT?Just like a mallard duck, the American Coot is an omnivore. But instead of swooping into freshly harvested corn and soybean fields to feed on grain, the coot prefers to eat things it can find around the water. It eats mostly plant material, but also eats insects, tadpoles, fish, worms, snails, crayfish, and freshwater shrimp. Maybe that is why the coot got a bad rap once upon a time and is now considered a mud hen. Because it tastes like mud? Someone tried to roast a whole coot and the bird's fishy diet and inedible fat stunk up the whole kitchen. That, and they probably cooked the crap out of it until it was well done, making it tough as nails.HOW TO COOK COOTIf you are looking for an excuse to burn that pumpkin spice candle you bought at the Dollar Store, cook coot with the skin on. You'll need that candle to rid the house of the nasty smell. But then you'll be stuck with an awful pumpkin spice smell. Quite the conundrum!I skinned the dark red breasts, legs, and thighs (saving the legs and thighs for a future recipe idea). I also saved the heart, liver, and gizzards to make a Cajun Dirty Rice.Like all my birds, both waterfowl and upland birds, I soaked the breast meat in a brine. The only downside of brining is that the water tends to hydrate the skin and waterlog the exterior fat of birds, so you'll have a difficult time getting that crunchy, crispy skin we are all after when cooking something like skin-on duck breast. But since we are skinning out the coot, we don't have to worry about it, and brining is the way to go.WHAT IS BRINING?Brining is the act of soaking meat in a seasoned water bath so the seasoning can penetrate deep into the meat. It flavors the small coot breasts, allowing the salt to migrate into the center in a short amount of time, and helped protect it from overcooking. Cells swap the water in the meat with the seasoned brine water through osmosis, literally pulling the salt into the center. Wet brining allows for even and consistent distribution of flavor, seasoning the entire coot breast with the same amount of saltiness.Due to the small size of the breast meat found on an American Coot, it's important to brine the meat for only 1 to 2 hours, and no more. Otherwise, you'll have an end product that is pure pucker and not appetizing. CHOWDER VS SOUPThis coot recipe is a coot chowder, but you could technically also call it coot soup. Chowder can be classified as a soup, but soup isn't necessarily chowder. The ingredients used, along with textures achieved during preparation, are the main differences between the two bowls of soul-satisfying liquid.Soup tends to be thinner and lighter than a characteristically thick and rich chowder. Defined by its chunkiness, chowder also features large morsels of ingredients like seafood and potatoes…and coot!When comparing chowder vs soup, the chowder tends to be creamier thanks to heavy cream or milk that are prominent in most chowder recipes. That said, chowders like this one are also served piping hot, unlike cold soups like gazpacho or vichyssoise.SUBSTITUTIONS AND VARIATIONSThis is a fairly thick soup. If you prefer a thinner consistency like my wife, just add a little more broth until you get it the way you like.DUCK RECIPES AND GOOSE RECIPESIf you still aren't convinced to make this Corn Chowder with some American Coot, then you can always substitute some chopped duck or goose breast. For great duck recipes, check out my recipes for Duck Heart Stuffed Mushrooms, Chopped Goose Liver and Fried Gizzards. Or see all my Goose and Duck Recipes here.COME HUNTING IN NORTH DAKOTAIf you would like to come hunt ducks here in North Dakota, check out the North Dakota Game and Fish Department webpage on duck hunting. And if you want me to come along with you as your camp cook, photographer, or butcher, you can find out more details here.CONNECT WITH ME AND JOIN OUR WILD GAME COOKING COMMUNITYIf you make this Coot and Corn Chowder recipe, I’d love to see pics of your creations on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter! Hashtag them #wildgameandfishDid you enjoy this Coot and Corn Chowder recipe? 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Ingredients
- 6 slices bacon, cut into small pieces
- 6 coot breasts, cut into small pieces
- 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
- 4 celery sticks, chopped
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons minced garlic
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 3 medium Yukon Gold potatoes, cleaned and diced
- 2 cups fresh or frozen corn
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
- kosher salt
- black pepper
- 2 green onions, chopped
Instructions
- Add bacon to a 6-quart Dutch oven or similar size pot over medium-high heat. Cook for about 8 to 10 minutes until crispy. Take the bacon out of the pot and transfer to a paper towel lined plate.
- Add the chopped coot to the Dutch oven with the bacon grease and sauté for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove the coot from the pot and transfer to the same plate with the cooked bacon.
- Add the onion and celery to the Dutch oven with the bacon grease and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the flour and garlic and cook for about a minute, stirring constantly.
- Add the chicken broth and whisk together to ensure the flour has dissolved and everything is scraped up from the bottom of the Dutch oven.
- Add the potatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
- Add in the coot meat, corn, heavy cream, Italian seasoning, smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, and 3/4 of the bacon (Save the rest for garnishing the bowls when ready to serve). Continue to cook over medium high heat until the potatoes are done, about 15 more minutes. Stir every few minutes. The chowder will get thicker the longer you cook it.
- Season the chowder with salt & pepper as needed. Garnish with the remaining bacon and chopped green onions.
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2 Responses
This recipe sounds great (wonderful description/story too, Jeff!) and makes me want to try coot. I, too, heard they are awful to eat, maybe that is why there are so many in the water-filled ditches and ponds in ND! Now just have to get me a coot… and not an ‘old coot’ as we used to call my dad! LOL
Thanks for the comment Cheryl! Maybe I can take you coot hunting sometime!