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America’s real immigration crisis involves invasive critters and plants.��

In 2011, the Department of Interior spent ��on controlling and stopping the spread of invasives (also known as exotics). From pythons wriggling through the Everglades to brown trout crowding out humpback chub in the Grand Canyon, many exotics are here to stay. Since we can’t eradicate them, management is our best way forward.��

As the old saying goes, if you can’t beat them, eat them. Many of these species are edible, some are even delicious, leading environmentally minded chefs to put invasives on menus in hopes of introducing them to a wider audience. But you don’t have to be a professional to cook and enjoy them. Here are five invasives you could easily be eating, and how to cook them.

Nutria

These rodents were originally brought to the Gulf Coast for their fur, but “a combination of human and weather events resulted in them being released,” says Scott��Leysath,��host of��,��a TV show about killing, cooking,��and eating invasives—from armadillos to iguana to pythons.

The problem with nutria is that they breed quickly—up to 13 babies can be born at once, and a mother can mate again just two days after giving birth. They also eat like crazy—growing up to 20 pounds, these rodents make short work of wetlands.

“These guys have an image problem,”��Leysath��says. “They look like a drowned rat. But they taste absolutely fine; there’s nothing wrong with them, you’ve had worse.” (“You’ve had worse” probably isn’t the best slogan to launch nutria’s rebranding campaign.)

For his show on nutria,��Leysath��and the crew shot the creatures with .22-caliber rifles. Then he went low and slow with the meat. “Anything you can do with a lean cut of pork you could do with this meat,” he says.��

Nutria Chile Verde

Ingredients

3 pounds nutria meat (about 6 cups), cut into 1-inch pieces
3 tablespoons vegetable oil��
1 1/2 quarts chicken broth��
2 cups yellow onion, chopped��
8 garlic cloves, chopped��
2 green bell peppers, chopped��
1 red bell pepper, chopped��
2 Anaheim peppers, chopped��
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced��
1 tablespoon��dried oregano flakes��
2 tablespoons chili powder��
2 tablespoons ground cumin��
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper��
2 cups fresh��tomatillos, skin removed; quartered (or canned/drained)��
1 cup fresh cilantro leaves, chopped��
Salt and pepper to taste��

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large stockpot over medium-high heat. Add nutria and brown evenly.��
2. Add 1 quart chicken broth and any additional broth or water to cover meat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 2 hours or until meat is tender and breaks apart, but doesn’t fall apart with moderate finger pressure. Drain liquid from stockpot.��
3. Add remaining 2 cups of chicken stock and all other ingredients except cilantro. Simmer until peppers are tender. Stir in cilantro and season with salt and pepper to taste.
4. Serve with warm flour tortillas, shredded lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream and cold Mexican beer (optional, kind of).

Lionfish

Native to the Western Pacific, it’s believed that��lionfish��entered the Atlantic in 1992 during Hurricane Andrew, when a��beachside��aquarium on Biscayne Bay just outside of Miami broke. In the Atlantic, the fish have no natural predators and they eat like marathoners pillaging a stash of day-old bagels. One study found that over a span of five weeks, a single��lionfish��could reduce the numbers of juvenile fish on a reef by 80 percent.

Luckily,��lionfish��are pretty tasty. Unluckily, they have venomous spikes that carry a mild toxin. Most divers report their prick to be somewhere between a bee sting and a stingray barb to the arm. “The first thing someone should do is cut off the barbs,” says��Tenney��Flynn, the executive chef and owner of����in New Orleans. “I haven’t been stuck yet but it’s like having sharp knives around—I think the stick is coming sometime in the future.”

Chef Flynn says��lionfish��have a tender texture and a mild flavor. Since they have to be harvested by spear fishermen, (lionfish��don’t bite on lines and as of this moment there isn’t a great way to trap them), buying the fish wholesale can be surprisingly expensive. But if you’re willing to go diving, most states encourage you to kill every one you see.

GW Fins’ Tempura-fried��Lionfish��Tacos��

Ingredients for the slaw

1 cup Blue Plate mayonnaise
1 chipotle pepper in��adobo
1 tablespoon��Adobo��sauce
2 tablespoon��Fresh lime juice
1 teaspoon��Creole seasoning
1 pinch��salt
1 pinch��pepper
2 cups��shredded cabbage
½ cup��finely sliced red pepper
½ cup Chopped green onions
¼ cup Finely chopped cilantro

Blend the mayonnaise, chipotle,��adobo��sauce, lime juice, creole seasoning, salt and pepper together in a small bowl. Place veggies in a large bowl and then pour on chipotle dressing and toss thoroughly.

Ingredients for the fish

1/2 pound��lionfish��(or you can use trout if you can’t find��lionfish) cut into 3-inch pieces
2 teaspoon��Creole seasoning
Oil for frying

Ingredients for the batter

1 cup cornstarch
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 pinch��baking soda
1 pinch baking powder
1 teaspoon Creole seasoning
1 bottle light beer

Preparation

1. Mix the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl and mix in beer. Add a handful of ice and stir.�� Let sit until ice is melted.
2. Sprinkle fish with creole seasoning and then dip into batter. Heat your oil to 360 degrees. Drop the pieces of fish into the hot oil and deep fry, moving back and forth, for 2-3 minutes. Place on paper towels to blot extra oil.
3. Meanwhile, brown white corn tortillas in a hot skillet.

To assemble, place slaw on corn tortillas, then add one or two pieces of fish. Garnished with avocados, tomatoes, chopped green onions and diced cilantro. ��

Snakehead

These��frankenfish��were first discovered in Maryland in 2002. It’s believed they were brought over for use in Asian fish markets and then somehow escaped.��Snakeheads��are able to live for several days out of water, and like the��lionfish, they have no natural predators in North America. When they were first discovered, biologists feared the fish would wreck local ecosystems, but that prediction hasn’t completely come true. Still, if you catch a��snakehead, law prohibits you from throwing it back.

Not that you’d want to. “The��snakehead��is a really delicious fish with a really good yield,” says Peter��Gebauer, executive chef for the����in Milwaukee, where he oversees seven restaurants.��“I buy them whenever I can��get some. The name��itself��is a little scary; it sounds like something you’d see on ‘River Monsters,’” he says, adding that guests are often a little nervous about it. “We don’t hide what it is though. It’s an opportunity for us to make a difference in the environment and educate the public.”��

Gebauer��prefers to stay authentic to the snakehead’s roots, serving it in a traditional Asian black bean sauce.��

Steamed��Snakehead��with Black Beans & Ginger��

Ingredients

6 ounces��snakehead,��fillet��with skin on
½ teaspoon garlic, minced
½ stalk green onion, fine diced
2 slices ginger, peeled and thin julienne
3 springs cilantro, fine chopped
½ teaspoon��sugar, granulated
½ teaspoon sesame oil
½ teaspoon rice cooking wine
½ teaspoon chili oil (optional)
1 teaspoon black mushroom soy sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 tablespoon preserved black beans & ginger���� ������ ��
1 pinch white pepper, ground

Preparation

1. Place fish in pan, skin side up.
2. In a small bowl, mix all remaining ingredients together.
3. Place mixed ingredients on top of fish.
4. Steam for 8 minutes or until done.
5. Place in center of a warm plate for service and top with the liquid.
6. Garnish with cilantro.��
7. Serve with steamed rice.

Wild Hog

Mississippi State University produced a video series on our nation’s hog problem called “.” In one episode, a Texas state official says, “With over 2 million hogs in Texas, we’re not going to barbeque our way out of this problem.” Maybe not, but it sure would be fun to try.

Wild hogs, whose populations have boomed due to domesticated pigs getting loose, destroy native vegetation and tear up the ground, often causing erosion. “It’s a real problem all over the sunbelt. In warmer climates they reproduce like crazy,” says��Leysath.

They’re good eating, though. “You can prepare them any way you’d prepare traditional pork; it’s just leaner.”��Just��be wary of trichinosis.��Leysath��says that for this reason he cooks his wild boar meat to at least 160 degrees. “Trichinosis dies at 137 degrees but I don’t like to mess around with it.” ��

Pulled Wild Hog Sandwiches

Ingredients

1 wild hog shoulder or hindquarter roast, bone in or out
1/4 cup Kosher salt
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup paprika
2 tablespoons each black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 cups barbecue sauce
Plastic wrap
Heavy-duty aluminum foil

Ingredients for the dipping sauce

1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/4 cup low-sodium soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon hot sauce
Burger buns
Coleslaw

Preparation

1. Combine rub ingredients and evenly coat roast. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least��six��hours and up to 48 hours.
2. Smoke, roast or grill (covered) at 250 degrees for��six to eight��hours or until the internal temperature away from the bone is 180 degrees. If desired, first brown the roast evenly in a hot oven or on a hot grill. This will give the roast additional flavor and extra crunch on the edges.��
3. Place the roast on top of two or three long sheets of heavy-duty foil. Pour barbecue sauce over roast and wrap snugly with foil so that sauce will not run out. Place back in the 250 degree oven, smoker or grill for another two hours.��
4. Combine dipping sauce ingredients in a tight-fitting jar and shake vigorously to mix. Remove roast and allow to cool enough to handle. Shred meat with fingers, tongs, or forks.
5. Place a mound of pulled meat on the bottom half of each bun. Top with slaw and serve with dipping sauce on the side.

Asian Carp

Since being introduced via fish farms in the��1970s, Asian carp (which is the catch-all for four different species of non-native carp) have slowly expanded their range. Each year they inch closer��and closer��to the Great Lakes. According to the National Wildlife Federation, some varieties of Asian carp can eat up to 20 percent of the bodyweight in plankton each day. Add in the fact that females lay half a million eggs at a time, and it’s easy to see how the fish have spread so fast.��

Unlike��snakehead��and��lionfish, Asian carp are a tougher sell. The meat isn’t bad, it’s just that “it’s a lot of labor for not a lot of fish,” says��Gebauer. Still, he’s had them on the menu at his restaurants since 2012, mostly as a public service, he says.��Gebauer��describes the meat as “like a mix between crab and sea scallop.” He often serves it in a��ceviche��or fries it into��fishcakes.

Chef Gebauer’s Smoked Asian Fish Cakes

Ingredients

½ cup mayonnaise
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 egg
1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
½ cup onion, small diced
½ cup��red pepper, small diced
¼ bunch��parsley, minced
½ teaspoon Old bay seasoning
1 pound smoked boneless silver fin (alternatively crab meat or smoked trout can be used.)
¾ cup��panko��bread crumbs
To taste salt and pepper, chives, arugula

Preparation

1. Combine mayonnaise, mustard and eggs, and chill.
2. Saut�onion and red pepper in extra virgin olive oil until softened. Allow to cool.
3. Combine onion, red pepper, mayonnaise, mustard, egg, parsley, salt, pepper, and old bay seasoning.
4. Gently fold the mayonnaise mixture into fish and��panko. Be very careful to not shred the flesh of the meat.
5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
6. Shape into two once cakes and chill for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.
7. Pan fry and serve with tartar sauce or aioli
8. Garnish with chive and arugula