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.
