Smoked Rabbit
All you need are two ingredients; a properly butchered rabbit brined for 1–24 hours and your favorite sauce. Preheat your oven at 250°F and use hickory wood for that extra oomph of flavor.
After you’ve removed the rabbit from the brine, butterfly it and put it in the smoker and baste the meat with your favorite sauce or just butter if you want to keep it simple. Smoking a rabbit usually takes about 2 hours, so you might want to put aside a weekend.
Serve it with roasted potatoes and gravy with a bed of rice and call your friends over. This is not a dish you’ll want to enjoy alone!
- 1 whole rabbit
- -2 Tbsp. kosher salt
- -½ cup white vinegar
- -Water
Rub:
- 1 Tbsp. garlic powder
- 1 Tbsp. cayenne pepper
- 1 Tbsp. salt
- 1 Tbsp. black pepper
- 1 bottle of barbecue sauce
- Make a brine by dissolving the kosher salt into the white vinegar. Pour the brine over the rabbit in a shallow dish and add enough water to cover. Let sit for at least one hour.
- Preheat the smoker to 200 degrees. Remove the rabbit from brine and pat dry. Whisk together equal parts garlic powder, cayenne pepper, salt, and pepper. Next, season the rabbit heavily with the prepared rub.
- Place the rabbit in the smoker and add hickory wood to the smoke box. After 15 minutes, mop the rabbit with barbecue sauce and repeat every 15 minutes.
- After two hours, remove the rabbit from the smoker. Mop with more barbecue sauce and serve.
Grilled and Marinated Rabbit
Well you can grill pretty much anything. Why not try a rabbit?? This recipe comes from one of the greatest chefs today! The smashed woody herbs add incredible flavour to the rabbit, especially when the smoke hits it. Serves 2.
Ingredients:
1.2 kg rabbit , jointed
1 handful fresh thyme and rosemary , leaves picked
4 cloves garlic , peeled
olive oil
1 lemon , zest and juice of
1 teaspoon honey
4 thick slices higher-welfare pancetta
salt
freshly ground black pepper
- I’ve written this recipe to be cooked on the barbecue, because the flavour will be amazing, but it also works really well when roasted in the oven at 200ºC/400ºF/gas 6. If you cook it in the oven, turn the pieces of rabbit several times to ensure even colour and cooking. If you cook it on the barbecue, you’ll need 5 wooden or metal skewers (soak wooden ones before you use them).
- Whether barbecuing or roasting, here are your rough timings:
-
Belly: 25 to 30 minutes.
-
Kidneys and liver: 4 minutes.
-
Saddle and ribs: 15 to 20 minutes.
-
Legs and shoulder: 35 to 40 minutes.
- Put your rabbit pieces into a bowl. Using a pestle and mortar, or a liquidizer, bash or whiz up the thyme and rosemary leaves to a pulp, then add the garlic cloves and bash or whiz again. Stir in 8 tablespoons of olive oil, the lemon zest and juice and the honey, and pour this over the rabbit. Put the meat to one side and let it come to room temperature while you light your barbecue.
- Now I’m going to talk about flavour. Get a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme and tie them together like a little brush. Each time you turn the meat, dab it with a little of the marinade to give you a lovely encrusted layer of flavour. This rabbit is going to be really tasty!
- Keeping the marinade to one side, remove the pieces of meat and season with salt and pepper. Sandwich the pancetta between the 2 pieces of belly using 3 skewers. Put the legs and shoulder on the barbecue. When they’ve been cooking for 10 minutes, put the belly on. After another 10 minutes put the saddle and ribs on. Make sure you turn the meat over every so often. Look after it by controlling the temperature and basting it continuously with the marinade. Cut three-quarters of the way through each kidney and open them out like a book. Cut the liver into 4 pieces and push one piece on to each remaining skewer, followed by a kidney and more liver.
- When all the pieces of meat are beautifully cooked, add your skewered bits of kidney and liver on to the barbecue and cook until golden, along with your 2 remaining slices of pancetta. After a few minutes, when the pancetta is browned, put it on top of the meat at the cooler end of the barbie. Now get your guests round the table.
- You can serve the rabbit with any white beans, or roast potatoes, or grilled vegetables, or different salads – it really depends on how you feel and what the weather’s like. Just put a big bowl of your chosen accompaniment in the middle of the table and serve all the meat on a board. Lovely with a glass of white wine. Simple, honest and bloody good.
Honey Baked Rabbit
Almost as simple as it gets! Combine everything in a pan and pop in the oven to bring out the sweetness of that delicate rabbit meat. Serves 4.
Ingredients:
- 2.5 to 3 lbs. Rabbit
- 1/3 C. Margarine, melted
- 1/3 C. Honey
- 2 T prepared Mustard
- 1 tsp. Salt
- 1 tsp. Pepper
- 1 tsp. curry powder
Directions:
Arrange rabbit in shallow baking pan. Mix other ingredients and pour over rabbit. Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 ¼ hours, basting frequently until browned.
Rabbit With Light Mustard Sauce
Ingredients:
- 2.5 to 3 lbs. of Rabbit, thawed, Flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 4 T. Butter
- ¼ C. Vegetable Oil
- Mustard Sauce:
- ¼ C. Light Sour Cream
- ½ C. low-fat yogurt
- 1/3 C. Dry White Wine
- 3 T. Dijon Mustard
- ½ tsp. Salt
- ¼ tsp. freshly ground pepper
- 7 tsp. chopped fresh basil
Directions:
Dredge rabbit with seasoned flour, shaking off excess. Saute in butter and oil until lightly brown and tender, about 20 minutes on each side.
To make sauce, combine all ingredients. Simmer and stir until sauce is warm. Do not boil. Serve over rabbit. Makes about 1 ¼ cups.
Simple Rabbit in The Oven
Do you like rabbit and want a delicious recipe? Try this tasty simple rabbit recipe in the oven, is quick and easy to prepare.
Ingredients:
- 1.2 kg (2 2/3 pounds) rabbit cut into pieces
- 200 ml (about 1 cup) olive oil
- 1/2 chilli
- 6 cloves of garlic
- Coriander (to taste)
- Nutmeg (to taste)
- Pepper (to taste)
- 1 kg (2 1/4 pounds) small potatoes
- Vegetable oil for frying
- Salt (to taste)
- Place the rabbit on a baking dish and season with salt, pepper, nutmeg, chilli, chopped coriander and the unpeeled crushed garlic. Let marinate about one hour.
- Preheat the oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Drizzle the rabbit with the olive oil and bake until golden brown slightly, about 1 hour. Occasionally, drizzle the rabbit with the sauce.
- Meanwhile, place the unpeeled potatoes in a saucepan with water seasoned with salt. Bring to a boil over high heat. When starts boiling, reduce to low heat and cook about 20 minutes. When the potatoes are cooked, drain them with a skimmer and let cool slightly. Peel the potatoes and fry them in hot oil until golden. When the potatoes are fried, place them on a plate with absorbent paper.
- Turn off the oven and serve the rabbit with the potatoes.