She was there with me at the butcher shop. And she remembers EVERYTHING.
I think I got her to eat some rabbit a couple years ago, but maybe that was a friends kids. Did those ones on the grill. And of course, said they were chicken.
My go to rabbit recipe is pretty simple. I’m using wild rabbit that I’ve harvested so if you are using store bought bunnies I am sure it will work too.
I boil the rabbit in a bit of salted water and the pull the meat off the bone (and here is where I would remove any fur or shot).
Then I just fry the meat in a good amount of butter with mushrooms and onions. Serve with some mashed potatoes.
Very simple but I love it.
My 3 yo daughter’s favorite movie is Bambi and her favorite meat is Bambi. Won’t even touch beef!
My favorite way to cook bunny is to smoke it for an hour- I like red oak- then roast with some black pepper and garlic powder and some veggies in a dutch oven at 225F for 4 or 5 hours til it falls off the bone. Mmmmm. Now I wish I had some rabbit! Should be plenty on Craigslist a month after Easter!
Because it does seem similar to chicken, any chicken recipe adapts well for rabbit. Being very lean, the braising or stewing methods of cooking work very well. Rabbit done ala Coq au vin in red wine with onions and mushrooms is excellent. One of the best rabbit dishes I’ve done involved braising the rabbit in a mixture of orange juice. The sweet acidity of the juice was wonderful with the rabbit. I don’t remember the exact recipe. I seem to think it was something of Julia Childs. I know the casserole was tightly sealed with a flour dough mixture for the braising process. Anyway, couldn’t find the original, but here’s something that looks like a good facsimile.
Time: 8 hr marinade, 1 hr cook time
Difficulty: Medium
Serves: 6
1 whole skinned rabbit, 2-3 lbs, cut into 6 pieces
3/4 cup fresh squeezed orange juice, approx 2 large oranges
2 tbsp orange zest
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
1 tbsp fresh chopped basil
3 tbsp white balsamic vinegar (you can sub white wine vinegar if you don’t have white balsamic)
3 tbsp minced shallots
1 tsp celery seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 cup chicken or vegetable broth
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp water
Place your rabbit in a large ziplock freezer bag for marinating, or bowl if you prefer. Combine orange juice, zest, salt, black pepper, basil, white balsamic vinegar, shallots, celery seed, and coriander and place in marinating vessel with rabbit. Allow to marinate 6-8 hours.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Bring oven safe skillet to temp over burner on medium flame and add the olive oil. Remove rabbit from marinade, reserving the liquid, and brown in skillet, approx 7-10 minutes per side. After rabbit is browned, add reserved marinade and broth to skillet and bring to a simmer, approx 2-3 minutes. Place the skillet in the oven, uncovered, for 30 minutes.
Remove from the oven and transfer rabbit to a plate. Dissolve cornstarch in the water. Simmer the liquid in the skillet over medium burner and add the cornstarch slurry. Stir with whisk until sauce thickens. Drizzle sauce over rabbit to serve.