# My First Rabbit Meal



## happy acres (Apr 28, 2014)

It was delicious! I slow cooked it in the crockpot, with only butter on it. No liquid, no spices. It came out tender, and very good, falling off the bone. I paired it with mashed potatoes, country gravy, and canned cabbage. Oof! I'm stuffed! Since this was my very first time cooking rabbit, I wasn't sure how it would come out. It was also the first time I had eaten rabbit since I was six years old. I was very impressed with how good it was!


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## VickieB (Apr 28, 2014)

My favorite is fried rabbit legs... they are very good! And rabbit pot pie... and rabbit chimichangas... Actually, it's all very good!  Congratulations on your first meal!


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## Hens and Roos (Apr 29, 2014)

Glad to hear you like it and that it came out nice.  We  like to roast the rabbit with a few slices of bacon and cut up apples.  Leftovers are turned into pot pie.


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## happy acres (Apr 29, 2014)

Those all sound delicious!


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## happy acres (Apr 30, 2014)

Was telling some folks at work about my rabbit dinner. Some were like "yeah, that sounds great! " other acted like I had killed the Easter bunny!


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## alsea1 (Apr 30, 2014)

It's funny how people would rather eat a bird that will consume god knows what, including each other rather than a nice vegetarian that is low cholesterol and fat.  And has four drum sticks. Go figure.


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## SillyChicken (Apr 30, 2014)

want tasty rabbit.............. can it!     We also make rabbit n dumplings stew.. very tasty!!!


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## happy acres (Apr 30, 2014)

How do you do rabbit and dumplings? Also how do you can it? Never canned meat.  And Vickie B. How do you do your rabbit potpie?


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## VickieB (Apr 30, 2014)

I boil (you can pressure cook it too)  my rabbit, and cut it into 1/2 inch pieces. I mix the rabbit with cream of chicken soup, a bag of mixed vegetables (carrots, corn, green beans, and peas) add whatever seasoning I want to add at the time, then I pour that in a pie shell (can be homemade or store bought) and cover it with a shell. Bake it until the shell is done. I'm sure there are better recipes out there. I just did that one night because I had everything I needed and decided to try it, and it was wonderful. 

I do my rabbit and dumplings just like my chicken and dumplings... If you have a good chicken and dumpling recipe you will love substituting the rabbit with it. 

I'm sure there are recipes that are specific to rabbit for those things, but I'm all about keeping things simple. Just remember that the rabbit generally takes longer to cook than chicken. For those things I already have the rabbit cooked. If I want shredded rabbit I will pressure cook it for about an hour. If I want small bite size pieces I will boil on the stove top for about 45 minutes or so. 

Oh! And to fry the legs, the BEST recipe I found has you baking them in oil first. I save the oil after I take them out of the oven and deep fry them in it. They are absolute wonderful! Better than fried chicken any day! Here is the recipe for that:   (this has you making homemade mayonnaise to serve with the rabbit. I skip that part. Frying the legs are about as many calories as I wanted to add to the meal)    

*Southern-Fried Rabbit Legs*


*Serves 4*


8 rabbit back legs
1 onion, sliced
1 whole head of garlic, broken into cloves and roughly smashed
A few sprigs rosemary
1 tbsp fennel seeds
Good pinch of ground coriander
Good pinch of ground cumin
1 star anise
Lots of sunflower oil, for the confit and for deep-frying
5 tbsp plain flour
2 eggs
150g fine breadcrumbs
A good pinch of cayennepepper
A good pinch of smoked paprika
Fine sea salt and freshly ground blackpepper

2 garlic cloves
Lemonjuice
1 heaped tsp English mustard
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp fresh thyme leaves
4 egg yolks
A pinch each of salt, sugar and black pepper
250ml light olive oil
250ml groundnut or sunflower oil
*METHOD*

*How to make southern-fried rabbit legs*

*1.* Preheat the oven to 350°F

*2.* Put the rabbit legs into an oven dish in which they will fit quite snugly in one layer. Add the sliced onion and tuck in the rosemary and garlic. Sprinkle over the fennel, coriander and cumin and tuck in the star anise. Pour over enough sunflower oil to just cover the meat. Cover the surface with a sheet of greaseproof paper, then cover the whole dish with foil. Put in the oven for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 300°F (285?). Cook for a further hour, then check the meat. If it's tender, you can stop cooking now. If not, return it to the oven and check again in half an hour. You might need to cook it for anything up to 2½ hours in total.

*3.* Meanwhile, make the mayonnaise. Crush the garlic cloves to a paste with a good pinch of salt and place in a bowl. Add a good squeeze of lemon juice, the mustard, spices, thyme and yolks, then season with pepper and sugar and whisk together. Combine the two oils in a jug. Start whisking the oil very gradually into the yolk mixture: start with just a few drops, then a few more and gradually increase to a very thin stream. Keep whisking all the time so the oil is emulsified into the yolks. When you've added all the oil, adjust the seasoning with more spices, salt, pepper, sugar and lemon juice if necessary. Cover and chill until needed.

*4.* Take the cooked rabbit legs out of the oil. Let the excess run off, then transfer the legs to a cooling rack with a cloth or kitchen towel underneath it. Leave to drain and cool.

*5.* Season the flour and put in a shallow dish. Lightly beat the eggs and put in a second dish. Put the breadcrumbs in a third dish and season generously with salt, pepper, cayenne and paprika. Take each cooled rabbit leg and dust it with flour, then dip it in egg, then cover it with breadcrumbs, patting them on to form an even coating.

*6.* Heat about a 10cm depth of sunflower oil in deep, heavy saucepan or deep-fat fryer until it reaches 170°C (338 F) (when a cube of bread dropped into the oil will turn golden brown in about 1 minute). Deep-fry the bread crumbed rabbit legs, two or three at a time, for 3-4 minutes, or until golden brown and piping hot in the middle. Drain briefly on kitchen paper, then serve straight away with the garlicky mayonnaise or another dip of your choice.


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## VickieB (Apr 30, 2014)

The thing I love the most about that recipe is that it really is simple to do. I bake them early in the day, and set them aside.  I've made a large bag of the flour and seasoning coating and keep it in my pantry. So when my husband comes home it's really fast and easy to quickly coat the legs and fry for about 3 minutes. It makes for an easy and quick meal. You could probably bake up a batch and freeze them. Then take out what you need for a meal, thaw and deep fry.


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## Freezer_pets (May 7, 2014)

We just had our first family dinner of rabbit.  Made a traditional hasenpfefer (rabbit stew) served over mashed taters.  It was awesome. 

I had previously roasted some legs and while tasty, they were pretty chewy.  Slow cook was most tender.  I think my next batch will be rabbit Colorado or rabbit verde in the slow cooker... Mmmm.  Loving the tender bottle and the lean healthy protein.

We have a lot of people ask why we have so many rabbits.  When i tell them, I usually get the light bulb, "oooohh" response.  If they ate it, they'd understand.


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## happy acres (May 7, 2014)

I've had some people look at me as those I'm an axe murderess!  They say "how could you do that? " I tell them "you eat meat, right?  Where do you think it comes from? I can't afford to have non-productive animals around. "  Some get it, some don't.


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## VickieB (May 8, 2014)

How many of y'all have tried cooking up the liver? I've started cooking it just recently, and it has become my favorite rabbit meal. Just mix salt, pepper, and flour in a bowl. Put in your liver and coat. Put your liver in a frying pan with hot oil and cover with sliced onions and crushed garlic... Fry them until they are nice and brown. It's fast, easy, and delicious! It makes a great meal the day you dispatch, while your rabbit is in the fridge resting.


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## happy acres (May 9, 2014)

How does it compare to beef,pork, or chicken livers?  All of which I love btw.


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## VickieB (May 9, 2014)

If you love beef, chicken, and pork liver, you will definitely love rabbit liver. From what I've read online, most people prefer the rabbit liver over the others. My mother used to make liver (beef) and onions for us when we were kids, and we loved it. I tried making it once for my family, and it didn't turn out as good. The rabbit liver is easy to make, and is wonderful. The first time I cooked it, I didn't add anything, just coated it with flour, salt and pepper. This last time I threw in the onions and crushed garlic and it was really good. It was great the first time too, but I do prefer it with the onions and garlic. I'm tickled pink because I can squeeze an extra meal out of my rabbits with the liver, making them even more cost effective.


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## happy acres (May 9, 2014)

That's great! I have battled life long anemia, and when I was a small child, the doctor told my mother to feed me liver and dark leafy green veggies. Fortunately I loved them! Good to know that I can get liver from my buns as well! I'll definitely be trying this on my next dispatch day!


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## VickieB (May 10, 2014)

My daughter came over tonight and I cooked up the last bit of liver that I had in the fridge for her. It was the first time for her to try liver, other than the one failure I had when she was a child. It was a big hit tonight! She loved it! I'm so excited! I had been just throwing the liver out, so this is like getting free meat!


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## Hens and Roos (May 10, 2014)

That sounds good, will have to try the rabbit livers next time we process.  Growing up my mom made liver and bacon- using the bacon grease to cook the liver in.


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## VickieB (May 10, 2014)

Ya'll will have to tell me what you think of it!  I felt bad this last year throwing those big beautiful livers away. I mean, you have to admit, rabbits have some huge livers! Now that I realize that they are better than beef or chicken livers it really makes it a joy to be able to cook them up.   

Another nice thing about the liver is it doesn't have to rest before cooking, so you can cook up the liver on dispatch day, and cook the rest of the rabbit the next night.


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## Baymule (May 10, 2014)

@Freezer_pets I busted out laughing when I read your name. I gave you a "like" for it!


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