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I am indebted to the late, great Penelope Casas for this braised rabbit recipe. Casas, who died in 2013, was one of the foremost experts on Spanish food, and her cookbook The Foods and Wines of Spain, remains an invaluable part of my collection. This dish is from that book.
Spain has all kinds of vinegary-meaty wild game dishes, notably their famous escabeche with partridges or pheasants. The theory is that vinegar can offset any sort of gaminess, while at the same time helping to preserve things for a few days; it’s not a bona fide preservation technique, but it will help keep everything nice for a week in the fridge.
It is ridiculously simple.
Rabbit, browned in olive oil, braised with vinegar and lots of garlic and onion, served with some sweet peas right at the end. Everything is in balance, from the zippy sherry vinegar, the warmth of the slow-cooked garlic, the rabbit, which turns luscious after simmering for hours, and even the peas, which really come off as sweet when juxtaposed with everything else in the bowl.
Add good black pepper and you need nothing else — except for maybe a nice white wine.
Chances are you are here looking for a rabbit recipe, but know that you can substitute chicken, turkey, quail, partridge, pheasant, squirrel or grouse here. Basically any white meat.
Once made, this, like many stews will keep for a week in the fridge.
Braised Rabbit with Garlic
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 domestic rabbit or snowshoe hare or 2 cottontails, cut into serving pieces
- 1 large yellow onion, sliced into 1/4" pieces from root to tip
- 1 head of garlic, cloves whole but peeled
- Salt
- 1/3 cup sherry vinegar
- 1 bay leaf
- Black pepper
- 1 cup peas
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large, lidded pot like a Dutch oven or, if you have one, an earthenware pot. Brown the rabbit pieces well, salting them as you do. Remove them as they brown and set aside. When the rabbit is browned, add the onion and cook, stirring occasionally, until it begins to brown, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic cloves and cook another minute or two.
- Nestle the rabbit back into the pot, sprinkle some salt over everything and add the vinegar and bay leaf. Pour in enough water to get about halfway up the sides of the rabbit. Cover the pot and cook slowly over low heat for about 2 hours.
- When the rabbit is tender, add black pepper and mix in the peas. Serve with lots of crusty bread.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Made this for the second time tonight and it was even more delicious than the first time — no clue why as I’m sure I did everything the same both times! 🙂 I used cider vinegar but otherwise pretty much made it as written. Very easy. Now off to get more bunnies! 🙂
This recipe made some really nice and tender rabbit, but unfortunately my wife and I found it to be lacking flavour. I should note that we substituted with a nice white wine vinegar we had, I also sauted some mushrooms and added them at the end with the peas. Keep the recipes coming though, Mr. Shaw!
The flavor is seriously lacking.
sounds like a very good recipe that I will definately attempt making. Just a quick question to the author, would It be ok to use a good red wine or white as an alternative to the vinegar. And also once its reached desired cook time on stove top would it be ok to place dutch oven in stove for an additional cook time to further thicken and tenderize the rabbit ? Thank you.
Joseph: I’d use white wine here. Yes, you can do that in the oven. Be sure to cover the pot.
Delicious. Nicely balanced.
Made this with farmed rabbit, mostly as written, and it was delicious- a keeper. I set the lid ajar about halfway through the time to reduce the juices, and added some carrots, sliced and pre-steamed, at the same time as the peas. Also, I included the liver, heart and kidneys in with the pieces while braising. What a great recipe!