Rabbit meat dishes. How to cook a rabbit so that the meat is soft and juicy

Anyone who monitors their health and cares about their figure should cook a rabbit. Rabbit meat is also perfect for children's diets, as it is very tender and is well absorbed by the body.

You can cook rabbit meat variety of dishes. It goes well with mushrooms and different vegetables, both raw and stewed.

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Rabbit meat is one of the most favorite types of meat for many chefs. This meat is most popular in Europe and Asia. In our country, although meat is not very popular, buying it is not a problem. Therefore, it is worth knowing how to choose good meat.

• Tip 1. It is best to buy meat from private farms or from those who breed rabbits (for themselves). This is the key not only to the freshness of the meat, but also to its quality. To ensure the authenticity of the latter, farms must provide a certificate. You can also buy good meat in the supermarket. It is important to look at the packaging date and the quality of the packaging itself. The vacuum must not be damaged. There should be no blood under the vacuum.
• Tip 2. Age. The best meat Rabbit meat is considered to be no older than four months. The weight of a young rabbit does not exceed 1.5 kg.
• Tip 3. Be sure to pay attention to external quality meat. It should be smooth and pleasant pink color, no blood. Carcasses must have fluffy legs and a tail. This is a guarantee that you are being offered rabbit meat and not “cat meat”.
• Tip 4. Determine what dish you are buying the rabbit for. This is important because rear end carcasses contain fewer bones, and therefore it is suitable for baking, stewing, etc. But the front part of the carcass is better used for broths.
• Tip 5. After choosing and purchasing meat, remember that you should not keep it in the freezer for a long time. It's best to prepare it the day you buy it and enjoy it. pleasant taste and get maximum benefit.

Important:

Before cooking a rabbit, the carcass must be washed and soaked in water. This will help remove specific smell meat. Plain water will be enough. But you can also acidify it slightly lemon juice, if you do not plan to marinate the meat.

5 ways to cook rabbit quickly and tasty

Method one. Bake in the oven

To do this, you need to process the meat, keep it in water, or better yet, in a marinade. Then rub the meat with salt and spices and put it in a pot, or wrap it in foil, a baking sleeve and put it in the oven.

Recipe 1. Rabbit in sour cream with garlic

It's simple and quick recipe for a family dinner.

Ingredients:

• Rabbit carcasses
• Marinade (any)
• One onion and one carrot
• 500 g sour cream
• Butter about a dessert spoon
• Garlic, spices, herbs - to taste

Cooking method

1. Wash the rabbit carcass and cut it into pieces, marinate in any marinade.
2. Heat a frying pan and pour into it sunflower oil, fry the pieces of meat until golden brown, place in the duck pot.
3. Chop onions and carrots, fry in butter. Add spices, cumin (optional) and add meat.
4. Heat the sour cream a little steam bath and pour it over the meat.
5. Place the dish with meat and vegetables in the oven, preheated to 180 degrees. At the beginning of stewing, the meat should be periodically poured with the juice that collects at the bottom of the pan.
6. Reduce the oven temperature and continue to simmer the meat for about half an hour.
7. Serve the finished dish hot. You can sprinkle fresh herbs on top.

Expert advice: It is most correct to cook a rabbit in a goose pan, roaster, cast iron frying pan with high and thick walls.

Recipe 2. Rabbit terrine

Another interesting thing French dish. Represents delicate pate, combining complex and special aromas.

Ingredients:

• 0.5 kg rabbit meat (back only)
• 200 g of the fattest pork
• 40 g chicken liver
• A few slices of bacon
• 2 dried juniper berries
• 1 shallot
• Half a fork-beaten egg
• 70 – 100 ml armagnac
• Salt, pepper - to taste

Cooking method:

1. Marinate part of the rabbit in Armagnac. You can take another brandy. This part of the meat will be in whole pieces in the pate.
2. Coarsely chop the remaining part of the rabbit, liver, in a food processor.
3. To the resulting minced meat, add half a beaten egg, chopped shallots, crushed juniper berries, salt, pepper and 30 g of armagnac from the marinade.
4. Place bacon slices in the bottom of the baking dish, leaving the edges overhanging the pan so that they can cover the pâté (like a roulade).
5. Place half of the minced meat on the bacon, then a layer of marinated rabbit, then again with minced meat. Cover with bacon and bake in the oven preheated to 200 degrees for 1.15 hours. Place a bowl of water (steam bath) under the baking sheet on which the terrine pan sits.
6. Cool the finished pate and put it in the refrigerator for a day.

• Tip 1. When it comes to cooking rabbit, recipes often call for spices. Depending on the purpose, different spices are used: juniper berries - to add tartness to the meat, lemon - to flavor and soften the meat. Cinnamon, coriander and cloves (only in small quantities) - to create delicious dishes. Dill, parsley (fresh and dried) - add at the end of cooking for aroma and highlighting the taste of meat.
• Tip 2. This dish includes many components, many aromas. Therefore, it must be prepared a day before eating, so that it infuses and “ripens”.
• Tip 3. Serve the pate with homemade onion confit and vegetables.

Method two. Put out

A popular way to cook rabbit for a family dinner. All you need to do is lightly fry the processed meat, place it in a cast iron pot or casserole dish, pour in the sauce and simmer over low heat.

Recipe. Rabbit in sour cream with mushrooms

Ingredients:

• 2.5 kg of meat (whole carcasses)
• 500 g porcini mushrooms
• 400 g fat sour cream
• 2 onions
• 3 – 4 cloves of garlic
• White wine
• Wine vinegar (white)
• Rosemary, pepper and salt

Cooking method:

1. Process and marinate rabbit carcasses: cut off the white film from the surface of the meat, rinse. Place the carcasses in a deep bowl and pour over them cold water. Add the juice of half a lemon, vinegar, and rosemary sprigs to the water. Leave to marinate for several hours.
2. Remove meat from marinade and chop in large pieces.
3. Heat a frying pan, pour in olive oil, add lightly crushed garlic cloves and lightly fry them. Then lay out and lower the pieces of meat into the frying pan. Fry the rabbit until golden crust. Place the fried meat in a casserole dish.
4. Wash and cut into rings onions. Fry it in the oil in which the meat was fried. Add wine and evaporate over high heat.
5. Pour most of the onion-wine mixture into the goose bowl with meat, stir and cover with a lid. Do not add water! The meat should be stewed in own juice and wine. Simmering time: 1 hour over low heat.
6. Prepare the mushrooms: wash, cut into 4 parts and fry in a frying pan.
7. Mix sour cream with salt, herbs and juice in which the rabbit was stewed. Add mushrooms to the mixture and stir.
8. Pour the resulting sauce over the rabbit, cover with a lid and place in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes. To cook the brown-crusted rabbit, leave the pan open.
9. Serve the finished dish with salad mixture, seasoned olive oil. If desired, you can prepare a side dish of potatoes. However, the dish is quite filling even without potatoes. And the salad mixture will be an excellent side dish.

Expert advice: When a rabbit is stewed in its own juice, you need to monitor its quantity. If it is not enough, you can add a little water.

Recipe 6. Roast rabbit with prunes

An original dish that can be prepared for both a family dinner and a formal reception.

Ingredients:

• 1 kg rabbit
• A glass of pitted prunes
• Glass of dry red wine
• 2 tbsp. vegetable oil
• 0.5 cups sour cream
• Bay leaf, salt, pepper

Cooking method:

1. Wash the rabbit meat, dry it and cut it into small pieces. Rub each piece with a mixture of salt and sour cream.
2. Place the meat in a frying pan with heated oil and fry it until golden brown.
3. Add wine, prunes, bay leaf, mix gently and simmer over medium heat for about 1.30 hours.

• Tip 1. Serve the finished roast hot. You can sprinkle with herbs.
• Tip 2. Before any cooking method, it is advisable to marinate the meat. This will make it soft, tender and enhance the flavor. It is best to marinate in white wine. And gourmets will love the dry red wine marinade.

Method three. Fry

This method is usually used to prepare meat for stewing or baking. It consists of frying processed meat in a frying pan in a small amount of oil. Depending on the recipe, rabbit meat is fried on its own or with vegetables.

Recipe. Rabbit in olive sauce (Ligurian rabbit)

This dish comes from Italy. Its peculiarity is the unusual aroma of olives, rose wine and the extraordinary tenderness of meat. Cooking a rabbit according to this recipe is not difficult and you should definitely try it!

Ingredients:

• 1 kg rabbit
• 100 g olives (preferably Taggiasca variety)
• 1 medium sized onion
• 1 sprig each celery and rosemary
• 4 walnuts
• Glass of rose wine (such as Corderosa)
• A glass of extra virgin olive oil
• Cumin, bay leaf, salt

Cooking method:

1. Wash the rabbit meat and cut into pieces.
2. Chop the greens and fry them in olive oil.
3. Add pieces of meat to the fried greens, pour wine over them and cook until the wine evaporates.
4. Chop the nut kernels and add to the cauldron with the rabbit. Throw in bay leaves and caraway seeds, pour in broth and salt.
5. Cook the meat for about an hour, then add lightly fried olives.

The finished dish is served hot.

• Expert advice:

Meat is sensitive to high temperatures, so do not overcook it. It is quite tender and cooks quickly.

Method four. Cook a rabbit on the grill

Grilling rabbit is very easy. You can use any grill for this, including an electric one.

The prepared meat is laid out on a wire rack or threaded onto a skewer. This method of cooking rabbit meat will especially appeal to connoisseurs of healthy dishes.

Recipe. Grilled rabbit

An easy-to-prepare recipe, exactly what you need in nature. It can also be prepared at home.

Ingredients

• 600 g rabbit
• 8 tbsp. olive oil
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 lemon
• Teaspoon of honey
• Thyme, rosemary, salt, pepper - to taste.

Cooking method:

• Cut the meat into small pieces so that you can thread it onto skewers and/or place it on a wire rack.
• Prepare the marinade: grind in a mortar fresh leaves rosemary and thyme, garlic cloves. Add honey, olive oil, juice and zest of one lemon.
• Pour the resulting marinade over the rabbit pieces and leave for 2 hours.
• Place the finished meat on a mesh or thread it onto skewers. Cook over coals until done. If you cook at home, then you need to switch the oven to the “grill” mode and cook on skewers or grids until the timer turns off.

Serve the finished dish hot with vegetables and herbs.

Expert advice: You need to prepare a rabbit dish one at a time. Because dishes made from this meat do not tolerate reheating, which is why they lose their value and taste.

Method five. Prepare a stew, azu or assortment

In this way, meat is cooked with vegetables. Vegetables are chosen according to taste. First, the meat is fried, then transferred to a cauldron. Vegetables are fried separately, after which they are transferred to a cauldron with meat and cooked until tender.

Recipe. Fricassee

This is a French dish that is prepared from rabbit, vegetables and other meat products. Tasty, refined... You definitely need to cook the rabbit using this recipe.

Ingredients:

• Rabbit carcass
• 150 g smoked brisket
• 250 g fresh mushrooms
• 200 g beef liver
• 50 g sour cream
• 350 g red table wine
• 50 g cognac
• 50 g butter
• Mustard, spices, flour

Cooking method:

1. Chop the smoked brisket and boil with garlic and onion in a small amount of water. Then fry it in butter and put it on a plate.
2. Wash the mushrooms and fry them.
3. Roll the rabbit pieces in flour and fry in the butter in which the brisket was fried.
4. Pour cognac over the fried rabbit pieces and set them on fire. After this, add red wine, salt, sour cream, herbs and pepper. Cover with a lid and simmer for about half an hour over medium heat.
5. Add to rabbit meat beef liver, mushrooms and brisket. Simmer for another 20 minutes.

Preparing the sauce:

Mix chopped onion with powdered sugar and put in a saucepan. Caramelize over low heat. Then add mustard.

• Tip 1. Pour the sauce over the finished rabbit with liver and breast and serve hot.
• Tip 2. You can also marinate the meat in white wine, which will highlight the milk-caramel sauce even better.

Video

How to cook delicious rabbit? How to choose this magnificent dietary meat? How to harmoniously season it with the optimal spices that will highlight the delicate taste? You will find answers to all these questions in our article.

First, let's talk about choosing meat. Be sure to take into account the fact that the healthiest and most delicious will be light, pale pink, fresh meat from a young animal (3 - 5 months). Often the carcass weight of a young rabbit does not exceed 1.5 kg. Such a carcass will cost a little more than the meat of an old animal, but the benefits and amazing taste of the meat are definitely worth the cost!

If the carcass you are offered weighs more than 2 kg, you can immediately draw a conclusion regarding the age of the animal.

When buying meat “from hand” in the markets, remember that every private owner has the right to trade meat only if he has a quality certificate for the product. Note that rabbit meat is usually safe, because this animal does not carry dangerous diseases.

But it is still preferable to purchase the carcass in a store. It will be great if you choose meat in a special vacuum packaging containing the inscription “ecologically friendly” pure product" Thanks to this packaging, you can check whether the meat was frozen. A fresh carcass has a delicate color, and there is no blood or liquid in the vacuum.

What utensils are needed for cooking?

Once you have purchased good fresh meat, check if you have everything you need to prepare the dish? Let's look at the utensils you may need. If you decide to bake meat, there is nothing to bake better than ducklings or the usual form for these purposes. If you want to fry or, take a saucepan, cauldron or frying pan with thick walls. It is best to cook meat in an ordinary pan, enamel or steel.

Cooking time

Before buying a carcass, you should definitely take into account that cooking a rabbit is not a quick procedure. The final calculation of the time frame should be made only after you have decided on the cooking method. So, it’s easy to fry small pieces until crispy in half an hour. You can stew a rabbit in an hour. The same amount will be needed for roasting meat.

Most of the time is spent by housewives on the process of preparing the main ingredient. The rabbit must be soaked after you wash and cut it. It usually takes at least 3 hours to soak. If the carcass weighs more than three kg, it must be soaked for at least 5 hours. Soaking makes the meat soft and removes the characteristic smell and taste of game.

Helpful tip: the rabbit will taste better if you marinate it after soaking.

A little about spices

The rabbit must be cooked with carefully selected spices that will help bring out the flavor of the meat. But compared to other types of meat, when cooking rabbit you need to know exactly what seasonings to use so as not to overshadow the main flavor notes.

During cooking or at the marinating stage, the main ingredient should “make friends” with pepper, bay leaf, garlic and onion. If you like more subtle notes, add a pinch of oregano, basil, thyme or coriander to the marinade. Many gourmets highly value rabbit meat marinated in spicy cinnamon, cloves or lemon.

Butchering a rabbit

In most stores, you can find already gutted carcass, and therefore all you have to do is defrost it (if necessary), rinse it thoroughly and cut it into pieces. Start cutting the carcass, separating the front, hind legs and shoulder blades. Separate the ribs easily with a sharp knife. The only part that you will have to “suffer a little” with is the spine. Use a special kitchen hatchet for this.

Marinate the meat

After cutting the rabbit carcass into pieces, rinse them thoroughly and soak them in clean water, changing the fluid once an hour. Next we move on to marinating.
Wine (preferably white) is perfect for marinade. wine vinegar, olive oil, cream, whey or sour cream with spices to taste. Chefs advise housewives to be careful with vinegar marinade. Using vinegar when marinating rabbit can make the meat of a young animal tough.

So, having chosen wine vinegar as a marinade, place the carcass or pieces in a container of water and add two to three tablespoons of vinegar. If the whole carcass is marinated, leave it in the container for three hours. If you marinate the pieces, the marinating time should be reduced to 1.5 hours. After marinating, rinse the meat under running water and dry it with a kitchen towel. Please note that it is not necessary to soak the rabbit in wine vinegar before marinating.

White wine is an excellent marinade that can also act as a spice. To marinate the carcass, pour wine over the rabbit so that it is completely covered with liquid. If desired, cognac is added to the wine. In this case, soaking the meat is also not required, nor is rinsing. All that remains is to salt and pepper it and cook.

Using a marinade made from sour cream, cream or olive oil necessarily requires pre-soaking the marinated product. Preparing the marinade is as easy as shelling pears: take any of the above ingredients in a small amount, add spices and salt to taste, then rub the marinade over the rabbit meat.

How to deliciously cook rabbit: the best recipes

• Rabbit in sour cream is a recipe that has become a true classic. In this way the dish is prepared in best restaurants the world and in ordinary kitchens, because there is nothing difficult in the recipe.

Chop the carcass into pieces and soak the rabbit in wine vinegar. Salt and pepper the meat, then fry it in a frying pan for about 10 - 15 minutes. While the main ingredient is frying, saute the carrots and onions. Take a deep saucepan, cauldron or duck pot, grease the bottom with olive oil and lay out the food in layers: first the rabbit, then the carrots and onions. The final layer is a large amount of sour cream. Simmer the rabbit for about 40 minutes. Serve in portions; before serving, sprinkle the dish with fresh herbs.

• If you want to cook something truly festive and royal gourmet dish, use one of the .

Marinate the carcass in olive oil with garlic, spices and salt, then fry the rabbit pieces in a frying pan. The next stage is stewing the main ingredient. Pour wine into a deep saucepan, throw in beans and carrots, onions, a little thyme, peeled and chopped potatoes, celery and pieces of rabbit. If you have chicken broth, it would be a good idea to add it to the pan as well.

Check if you have enough salt, then place the pan in the oven on a baking sheet and simmer the dish for about an hour.

• Meat in a cauldron with cheese - another one wonderful recipe, which will not leave anyone indifferent. Cut the carcass, soak it in wine vinegar. Then fry the meat in a frying pan, adding salt and seasoning. Take a cauldron or a duck pot and place the ingredients there in the following order: a few drops of olive oil, chopped onion, meat, another layer of onion, grated cheese, sour cream. Bake the dish in the oven for 40 minutes.

• If you decide to fry the rabbit in a frying pan, then at the beginning of frying, add half a glass of water to the frying pan in addition to oil. Close the frying pan with a lid and simmer the meat for about 20 minutes, then fry the pieces until an appetizing golden crust and golden brown meat.

• The rabbit can also be baked in a sleeve with potatoes. To do this, first marinate the meat in any way, then fry it a little. Peel the potatoes, chop coarsely, salt and pepper the tubers, cut the onion into rings. Take a sleeve and carefully place the potatoes, onions and rabbit pieces into it. Try to distribute the filling evenly. The temperature should be average. Bake on a baking sheet in the oven for about an hour to give the potatoes time to cook.

• Rabbit is easy to cook even in a slow cooker, in the “Stewing” and “Baking” modes. This dish requires pieces of rabbit, onions, carrots and sour cream. Add olive oil to the multicooker bowl and fry the meat in it. Then add grated carrots, finely chopped onions and sour cream. Turn on the “Stew” mode and cook the dish for 1.5 hours. After the specified time has passed, switch the appliance to the “Baking” mode and cook the meat for another half hour. You will receive juicy dish with a subtle aroma.

You don't have to strictly follow the suggested recipes. Chefs of famous restaurants advise periodically experimenting with marinades, sauces and other ingredients. Rabbit goes well with many foods.

As a side dish to the main dish meat dish Boiled or rice or vegetables are perfect. When it comes to drinks, you should give preference to good ones. white wine.­

A video on how to cook a rabbit baked in the oven will help you master all the intricacies of preparing this dish.

Many people know that the rabbit is the most useful and... dietary type meat, which is easily digestible and contains a minimum of fat. But as soon as it comes to preparing it, the vast majority of home cooks thoughtfully scratch their heads and expressively throw up their hands. If you hold this one out exclusively delicate product on fire, you get a dry, hard and unappetizing result (there is simply no other word) with a faceless “papery” taste. How to avoid this? How to cook a rabbit so that the meat is soft and juicy, and not rubbery and dry? It's simple. Here are a few rules for cooking rabbit meat and 4 reliable recipes for its preparation.

Principles for preparing soft, tender, juicy and flavorful rabbit at home

Delicate dietary product It's quite easy for an inexperienced cook to ruin it. If the technology is violated, the most tender meat will become tough, chewy, dry and almost tasteless. These basics of cooking rabbit meat will help you prevent culinary failure.

1. Properly selected, high-quality, young meat is much easier and more enjoyable to cook; dishes from it turn out softer and juicier. The weight of the rabbit carcass should not exceed 1.5 kg. The larger it is, the older the animal and the worse the characteristics of the raw materials (smell, hardness, dryness).
2. It is best to prepare fresh (steamed) or chilled product. A frozen rabbit loses a significant part of its organoleptic properties; less juice remains in it after heat treatment due to fiber damage. Be sure to pay attention to its color, smell and consistency. Young meat is usually light pink. There should be no stains, damage, or sticky residue on the surface. An unpleasant, repulsive aroma indicates a violation of storage conditions or damage to the goods. If you buy a carcass in a store, look for a special stamp that indicates it has passed quality control. Sometimes fur is left on the tips of the paws and tail so that the buyer can be sure that he is purchasing rabbit meat and not another animal.
3. For frying and baking, it is better to use the back part. The front of the carcass is more suitable for long simmering (stewing) and cooking.
4. Pre-fry until golden brown crust will help retain maximum juice inside during subsequent baking.
5. Soaking or marinating will help get rid of the smell of middle-aged meat. In the first case it is usually used vinegar solution(1-2 tbsp. 6% vinegar per 1 liter of water) or water-salt mixture (per 1 liter of liquid - 1 tbsp. table salt). Soak the product for 6-10 hours, replacing the water with a new portion every 2-3 hours. The most successful marinades are: wine, kefir (whey), based on vegetable oil with the addition of fresh or dried spices, onion, beer.
6. To create a crust on the surface of the rabbit pieces when frying, place them in the frying pan in small portions, 2-3 pieces each. small size. A large amount of cold raw material will cool the heated oil. As a result, the dish will not be fried, but stewed.
7. From traditional way checking readiness - piercing with a knife or toothpick, it is better to refrain. The rabbit will lose a lot of juice and will end up dry. Follow the cooking time indicated in the recipe.
8. Rabbit meat does not like powerful heat treatment. Traditionally, it is simmered for a long time at relatively low temperatures. With high heat, do not cook it for more than 30 minutes.

Cooking rabbit in the oven with sour cream, vegetables and aromatic herbs

Ingredients:

How to bake a rabbit in sour cream to make its meat as juicy and tender as possible:

Cut up the carcass. Wash it. Be sure to dry off moisture with paper towels. Chop half the thyme. Add 2 tbsp to it. l. vegetable oil. Stir. Rub aromatic mixture pieces of rabbit meat. Marinate for at least 1 hour. If you have the opportunity to marinate overnight, be sure to take advantage of it. Pour a spoon into the pan vegetable oil. Reheat slightly. Place a block of butter there. Melt it. Place 1 piece of rabbit (if small, you can use 2). Fry over moderately high heat until browned on all sides. Cook for 2-3 minutes, no more. Brown all the meat. Salt the cooked side while frying. Remove ingredients from the pan, trying to capture as little fat as possible. Place the rabbit in a heat-resistant form.
You can change the set of vegetables at your discretion. Rabbit goes well with stalked celery and potatoes. Chop the onion into thin half rings. Fry until half cooked in the remaining fat. Add more oil if necessary.
Cut the carrots into halves or slices. Brown.
Peel the champignons from the top layer and cut into 4-6 pieces.
Add vegetables to the rabbit meat. If desired, add a few more sprigs of thyme and a few cloves of garlic.
Mix sour cream with a glass of water. Add pepper and salt to taste. Stir. Warm over low heat, stirring.
Add sour cream filling to the rest of the ingredients. Cover the pan with foil or a lid. Place the dish to bake in an oven preheated to 150-160 degrees. Simmer for 1-1.5 hours until the rabbit becomes soft. At the end of cooking, remove the foil to form a golden brown crust on top.
The result is very tasty, aromatic and juicy meat. Serve it hot, with a vegetable side dish.

Colch meat baked in the oven with potatoes

Required Products:

Method of preparation (simple recipe with step-by-step photos):

Mix 50ml oil with thyme, rosemary and basil. If the herbs are fresh, chop them. Add a pinch of pepper. Stir.
Rub the resulting marinade onto the washed, dried and cut into pieces. rabbit carcass. Cover cling film. Place in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours. Better - at night.
Peel the potatoes. Cut into slices. Add to it 1/2 tsp. salt, paprika, a little pepper and garlic passed through a press. Pour the remaining oil into the potatoes. Stir.
Place potato slices on a baking sheet. Place the marinated rabbit on top. To make the dish softer and retain more juice, cover it with a sheet of heat-resistant foil or place it in a heat-resistant bag. Place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. Bake until the potatoes are done (30-40 minutes). Remove the foil 10 minutes before the end of cooking. A delicious golden crust will appear.
Don't put off tasting! Taste while the dish is still hot.

Stewed rabbit with vegetables in a slow cooker, in tomato sauce

You will need:

How to cook stewed rabbit in a slow cooker with tomato sauce and vegetables:

Cut up, wash and dry the carcass. Almost any part can be cooked this way. In any case, the meat will be soft and very juicy. Quickly fry it on all sides on the “Fry” mode until a crust forms (2-3 minutes). Depending on the coating of the multicooker bowl, use 1 to 2 tablespoons of vegetable fat.
Remove the fried pieces. Brown the chopped or coarsely grated carrots. Cook on the same mode for 3-5 minutes, stirring.
Add finely diced onion. Fry the vegetables until soft and golden brown.
Return the pieces of fried rabbit to the multicooker bowl. Stir.
Dissolve tomato paste warm drinking water. Add salt and spices. Pour into the slow cooker. If using tomatoes canned in their own juice, peel them if necessary. Mash with a fork or grind in a blender. Cook in the “Extinguishing” mode for 40-60 minutes (depending on the power and features of the device).
Serve the finished meat along with stewed vegetables and gravy. It turns out to be the softest and easily separates from the bone.

Rabbit with rice in pots in the oven

Required products:

Step-by-step recipe with photos:

Rinse the rice (parboiled, not polished) several times. Mix with not a large number dried herbs.
Cut the rabbit carcass into medium small pieces. If desired, separate the meat from the bones. Fry until golden brown in vegetable oil.
While frying, place the rice in the pots. Stick a peeled but whole clove of garlic into it. Add some salt. Add Place fried rabbit meat on top. Salt and sprinkle with spices.
Grate the carrots or cut into moderately thin strips. Bring until half cooked in a frying pan.
Sauté the onion. Mix with carrots, add salt and place in pots.
Add to each serving a small piece butter Pour in some water or broth. Cover the pots with lids and place in a preheated oven. Simmer at low heat (150-160 degrees) for 60-90 minutes.
It will turn out very delicious dish: soft rabbit, juicy vegetables and fluffy rice.

Rabbit meat is very healthy thanks to a large number useful substances, And low content cholesterol and sodium salts. In all respects it is better than pork and beef.

In addition, rabbit meat contains easily digestible human body protein, therefore it is included in the diet of children, sick and elderly people, pregnant and lactating women. But rabbit meat also contains harmful substances – purines, which can disrupt the acid-base balance in the body.

In addition, rabbit meat is one of the most expensive on the market, and not everyone may develop health problems from consuming it excessively. Therefore, sometimes you can diversify the menu and treat yourself and your loved ones to “homemade game”.

In what vessel is it better to cook rabbit meat to make the dish really tasty? Any utensil for cooking a rabbit at home is suitable - a cast iron or ceramic roasting pan, a steel baking sheet, a frying pan, a cauldron, a stewpan, regular saucepan– enameled or ceramic. The choice of cookware depends on how the rabbit will be cooked - in the oven or on the stove.

Cooks advise soaking rabbit meat before cooking - soak the meat in clean water, milk, or whey for 5-7 hours. After soaking, the meat becomes softer and loses its specific gamey taste. If the meat is soaked in water, you can add 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to it.

The cooking time also depends on what kind of dish you want to end up with - you can fry it in a frying pan until crispy very quickly - in just half an hour, but most likely the meat will turn out tough. It will take about an hour to bake in the oven. If you need to make broth from meat, this will also require more than an hour, although the cooking time depends not least on the age of the rabbit - the younger it was, the softer its meat.

Experienced cooks prefer not to cook the whole rabbit, because different parts carcasses different times preparations. The back, back, breast and legs are best cooked in different ways, but sometimes they break this rule if they need to cook a rabbit that is not only tasty, but also beautiful.

Cooking methods

There are many recipes, following which you can cook rabbit meat correctly and tasty - in a saucepan, in the oven, in pots, in a frying pan, in water and in sour cream. Let's start with the simplest.

Recipe 1.

How to cook a rabbit so that the meat is soft? This is very simple to do - cut the carcass, cut into pieces and boil for 1 hour. During this time, the young rabbit will become soft, but if the rabbit was more than two years old, it will take longer to cook. The first broth will need to be drained, pour clean water over the meat and cook until tender. You can add seasonings and spices to the broth to taste - bay leaf, onions, carrots, a mixture of peppers, basil, ginger, nutmeg, and of course – a little salt.

When the meat is cooked, you can lightly fry it in a frying pan with butter or vegetable oil until a slight blush appears. It will turn out quickly, tasty and healthy, with minimum set products.

Recipe 2.

Rabbit in sour cream on the stove. To prepare it you will need the following products:

• 1 rabbit carcass, 200 grams of sour cream, 2 onions, 100 grams of butter, 4 tablespoons of flour, 2 bay leaves, 2-3 cloves of garlic, a mixture of peppers, salt.
• Cut the carcass into small pieces, rinse, salt and pepper, roll in flour.
• Finely chop the onion, pass the garlic through a garlic press.

Melt the butter in a frying pan and fry the meat on all sides until golden brown. Transfer the fried meat into a cauldron. Separately, fry the onion for 2-3 minutes.

Pour 2 glasses of water into the cauldron with meat, add fried onions and simmer for 40-50 minutes. Then add bay leaf, sour cream, and a little water to the meat if it has boiled away. Simmer for another 10 minutes, remove from heat, add garlic, let stand for 10-15 minutes. The rabbit in sour cream is ready! You can serve with any side dish - pasta, mashed potatoes, buckwheat porridge.

Recipe 3.

Rabbit with potatoes in the oven. We will need the following set of products: rabbit meat, 700-800 grams of potatoes, vegetable oil for frying meat, 100 grams of butter, 2 small onions, 1 carrot, bay leaf, 10 black peppercorns, 100 grams of water, salt.

Fry pieces of rabbit meat on low heat in a frying pan with a lid until half cooked. Separately fry 1 onion and chopped carrots. Place the meat in a small baking tray, add fried onions and carrots, bay leaves, peppers, coarsely chopped potatoes, chopped raw onion on top, add water and salt to taste. Place the butter cut into pieces on top of the potatoes and onions.

Cover the baking sheet tightly with foil and place in the oven. After 30-40 minutes, take out the baking sheet, remove the foil, mix all the ingredients and put in the oven for another 10-15 minutes so that the excess moisture evaporates and the meat and potatoes brown a little. After this, the dish will be ready to serve.

Recipe 4.

TO festive table it is better to cook the whole rabbit carcass so that you can serve it at the table in beautiful design. So, we cook the whole rabbit at home, in the oven and in sour cream. In addition to the rabbit carcass, you will need 1 glass of mustard, 1 kg of potatoes, 200 grams of sour cream, salt and pepper to taste.

We wash the carcass, rub it with salt and ground pepper, place the carcass on a baking sheet, greased with vegetable oil, belly down. Lubricate with mustard top part carcasses, and place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 160 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

While the rabbit is cooking, peel the potatoes, chop them coarsely, and add salt to taste. Let's take the baking sheet out of the oven, turn it over, brush the belly with the remaining mustard, put the potatoes around it, and put it in the oven for another 15-20 minutes. After this, take the baking sheet out of the oven again, pour sour cream over the carcass and potatoes and place in the oven to complete cooking for 10 minutes. When the rabbit is ready, the whole carcass is also laid out on large dish, the potatoes are placed on the sides, sprinkled with herbs and served hot.

Recipe 5.

Rabbit in sour cream, in the oven. What products will we need? In addition to the rabbit carcass, you need to take 4 onions, 4 carrots, 500 ml of sour cream, salt and pepper to taste.

Cut the meat into pieces, soak in water for 2-3 hours, then drain the water, rub the pieces with salt and pepper and fry in a frying pan until golden brown.

Place the fried meat in a ceramic or cast iron roasting pan. Cut the onion into rings, grate or cut the carrots into rings, and add to the meat. Fill the container with water so that the meat is not completely in the water; the rabbit should be stewed, not boiled.

Cover the container with a lid or foil and place in the oven for an hour, then add sour cream and simmer everything together in the oven for 20 minutes. After this, the rabbit in sour cream is ready.

Recipe 6.

Rabbit in sour cream and wine, in the oven. The carcass can be cooked whole or cut into pieces. We will need: rabbit meat, 500 ml of dry white wine, 3 onions, 2 tomatoes, 100 ml of sour cream, ground black pepper, a sprig of rosemary, 5 grams of marjoram, salt, a head of garlic, 1 tbsp. flour.

Rub the meat with salt and pepper, pour wine and 1 tbsp into a large saucepan or other suitable container. sour cream, mix, add rosemary. If the container is small, it is better to cut the carcass into pieces so that the meat is completely in the marinade. Place the container in the refrigerator for a day.

Before cooking, cut the onion, crush the garlic, add marjoram and pepper, fry everything in a frying pan in vegetable oil.

Fry the marinated meat in a frying pan for 10-15 minutes, put it in a baking sheet, add sour cream, fried onions, garlic and spices, peeled and chopped tomatoes, cover with foil and simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Pour the wine in which the meat was marinated into a glass, add 1 tbsp. flour and mix, add to the meat, simmer everything together until cooked.

It will not be possible to cook a rabbit using this recipe quickly, but the result will pleasantly surprise both guests and household members.

Recipe 7.

Rabbit in foil in the oven, the meat according to this recipe is cooked quickly for 30-40 minutes, but it must first be marinated. For this recipe you will need the following products: rabbit carcass, 1 onion, 100 grams of butter, 40 grams of parsley root, 2 tbsp. tomato paste, 4-5 cloves, pepper, salt to taste, water.

Cut the meat into large pieces, wash it, sprinkle it with pepper, add cloves and grated parsley root, and fill it with water. The meat should be kept in this marinade for 2-3 hours at room temperature.

Then we place each piece on a separate sheet of foil, put chopped onion, a little tomato paste on the meat, and sprinkle with ground pepper. We wrap the foil very tightly so that the juice does not flow out of the meat and the steam does not escape.

Place the foil rolls on a baking sheet and put them in the oven for 30 minutes, then take out the baking sheet, pierce holes in the foil through which the moisture will evaporate, and put them in the oven for another 10 minutes.

Recipe 8.

Rabbit meat in white sauce. We will need: 1 rabbit carcass, 1 onion, 1 carrot, 1 parsley root. For the sauce - 3 cups broth, 1 egg yolk, 3 tbsp. butter, salt, black peppercorns, bay leaf.

We divide the carcass into portioned pieces and cook for 40 minutes in water with the addition of onions, parsley, carrots, peppers and bay leaves.

Place the cooked meat on a plate and begin preparing the sauce. To do this, heat the flour in a dry frying pan, stirring constantly. Then add 2 tablespoons of butter and fry the flour. After cooking the meat, strain the broth and pour it into a frying pan with fried flour.

Stir so that there are no lumps, cook the sauce for 5-10 minutes, turn off the heat. Egg yolk you need to mix with a small amount of sauce and pour into the total mass. Add salt and 1 tbsp to the sauce. melted butter, mix everything thoroughly.

Pour the sauce over the pieces of meat and serve; if desired, the meat can be fried a little in a frying pan.

Recipe 9.

Rabbit in sweet and sour sauce in a frying pan. We will need: rabbit meat, oil for frying, 300 ml of tomato juice, salt, black peppercorns, 1 tsp. sugar, 2 tsp. lemon juice, 1 onion, 1 carrot.

Fry the meat until golden brown - 10-15 minutes, fry the onion and finely chopped or grated carrots separately, add them to the meat, pour tomato juice, add lemon juice, pepper, sugar and simmer under the lid for 40 minutes over low heat.

Rabbit meat is famous for its dietary properties. Thanks to high content In terms of protein, low fat content and “bad” cholesterol, rabbit meat surpasses pork, beef and even lamb in its properties. In numbers, this is even more clear: beef proteins are absorbed by 62%, and rabbit meat by 90%. This dietary meat is rich in vitamin PP, calcium, magnesium, potassium and phosphorus. Last element is especially important for a growing organism, and many children intuitively love rabbit meat. Except energy benefits And dietary properties, rabbit meat is very tasty and easy to prepare.

It is interesting that hare meat (like rabbit meat) was not eaten in Rus' until the reforms of Patriarch Nikon. The beast was considered unclean, and Old Believers still adhere to these traditions. Even Jews do not eat rabbit meat. On the contrary, in Asia and Western Europe Rabbits have always been eaten, prepared in a variety of ways.

How to cook a rabbit? Let's consider the basic preparation scheme and the sequence of actions at each stage. It should be noted that not all parts of a rabbit carcass are equal. For example, the back part is better for frying, while the front part is better for boiling and stewing. The fatty parts can be baked.

Cutting

So, how to cook rabbit? The rabbit was bought, you warmed it up room temperature, washed and ready for further action. Is it possible to bake the whole thing? It's possible, but it's not as tasty as whole duck or goose. The rabbit will turn out better in parts, and it will be easier to cook. It should be divided into two parts (upper and lower) at the last lumbar vertebra. The powerful hind legs will go to the bottom, and everything else will go to the top. These groups can be prepared separately, together, or combined at the end into a whole dish. Each part (top and bottom) should be cut into small pieces. Cut the hind legs at the joints, leave the front legs whole. Divide the chest along with the spine into 3-4 parts. You can cut the meat from the belly and cut it into small (5 by 5 cm) pieces.

Pickling

The rabbit must be marinated. This will make it softer, more aromatic and tastier. Without the marinade, it will be a little tougher, and with an honest rabbit smell. Whoever likes it. An alternative to pickling is soaking in water. This simple operation will improve the properties of the meat and remove the smell. Soaking time is from 1 to 3 hours. You can add a little vinegar (wine or apple cider vinegar) to the water, but this is not necessary. Water makes rabbit meat less tough and reduces the specific smell, and this is already a lot. If possible, place the rabbit carcass in running water.

You can marinate in several ways:

• Vinegar. Wine vinegar is used (not acetic acid!) and spices. Usually vinegar is diluted in water or the water is slightly acidified with vinegar. The downside is that any vinegar, along with softening, reduces the natural flavor of the meat. Before cooking, vinegar marinade should be washed off with water.
• White wine is one of the best pickling options. The wine almost completely removes the specific smell, softens and flavors the meat very well. The result is a delicious dish with delicate taste, pleasant aroma and very beneficial properties. Sometimes red wine is used for pickling, e.g. French cuisine. Also definitely with spices.
• Whey is very good option. Whey is used for soaking and marinating hare meat, but is also suitable for rabbits. The meat noticeably softens and the bad smell is removed.
• Crushed garlic with olive oil is considered one of the classic marinade options for rabbit. You need quite a lot of garlic - 2 heads for a normal carcass. You can add a mixture of finely chopped herbs. The rabbit carcass must be rubbed with this mixture and refrigerated for 2-3 hours. Garlic will create a flavor contrast, soften the texture of the meat and will be an assistant in stewing in white wine.

Young or “store-bought” rabbits should be soaked only in water, whey or wine. Vinegar is used if the smell is really strong and unpleasant for some reason. In this case, vinegar muffles the smell, but at the same time makes the rabbit less expressive. This is why marinades with vinegar should be used carefully.

Spices

A rabbit can't live without spices. They can be added at the marinating stage (decoction or sprinkling) or immediately before cooking. There is a conditional list of “mandatory” spices and seasonings that are guaranteed to improve the taste of the rabbit; the rest can be added to taste.

Mandatory :

• Black pepper.
• Bay leaf.
• Salt.

Additional:

• Rosemary.
• Basil.
• Oregano.
• Dill.
• Parsley.
• Thyme (savory).
• Coriander.
• Cinnamon.
• Carnation.
• Celery.
• Lemon.
• Garlic.
• Juniper berries.

Black pepper, onion and bay leaf can be added both at the soaking stage and during the cooking process. Spices can and should even be added at the soaking stage. Especially if the rabbit is marinated for more than 3 hours.

Dishes

It is quite rare to cook a whole rabbit, this greatly simplifies the choice of dishes. Use thick walled frying pan and a stewpan. For baking you will need a large pan or a roasting pan. You can simmer in a frying pan with high walls. For cooking - an enamel or steel pan. Consider the size of the rabbit. Some specimens reach 4 kilograms when cut. You may have to cook it in two steps. In this case, it is logical to cook the upper part of the carcass separately from the lower part.

Cooking time

It all depends on the cooking method. Soaking takes from 2 to 16 hours. Cutting and washing will take another 10 minutes. Frying chopped small pieces of the lower part in a well-heated frying pan for about 30 minutes, ribs and front legs for about 20 minutes. If you fry the belly separately, 5 minutes on each side. A well-marinated rabbit, chopped into small pieces, is baked at a temperature of 190 degrees for about 25-35 minutes. Stew in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. As a rule, longer than an hour the rabbit is not cooked. But if low temperatures are used, the time can be increased. Long-term heat treatment does not make rabbit meat softer, but the aroma and properties of the meat may deteriorate. When preparing, it is quite acceptable to use several types of processing. First, you can fry it in a hot frying pan and then simmer it. Frying can be replaced by boiling.

Rabbit is suitable for all types of heat treatment. This is a versatile meat suitable for boiling, stewing, frying, baking and grilling. It tastes best when stewed and baked. You can simmer it either in the oven or on the stove. Classic option Cooking with sour cream is considered. Sour cream performs several functions at once. Firstly, it softens the meat, working as a marinade; secondly, it prevents it from drying out (in case of baking); thirdly, sour cream allows you to preserve the flavor of the rabbit.

Rabbit under sour cream

Ingredients:
rabbit carcass,
500 g sour cream,
1 carrot,
2 tbsp. spoons of butter,
1 onion,
3-4 cloves of garlic,
herbs (oregano, thyme, basil),
caraway,
bay leaf,
black pepper,
salt.

Preparation:
Cut the prepared rabbit carcass (marinated using any convenient method) into convenient portions. Fry in rabbit fat (if available) or vegetable oil. Transfer to a bowl (duck dish, large baking sheet). Cut the carrots into strips, the onion into rings or half rings. Sauté in butter and place on meat. Season with salt and pepper. Add ground cumin and bay leaf. Heat the sour cream in a water bath until liquid, pour in carefully along the side. Bring to a boil and place in an oven preheated to 160-180 degrees. For the first 15-20 minutes, pour the juices over the meat, then cover, reduce the temperature to 160 and simmer for another 25-35 minutes. Serve hot.

There are many recipes for cooking rabbits that cannot fit into the scope of this article, but the basic principles can be described in a few words. The rabbit allows you to cook yourself in various ways, he just doesn't love high temperatures. Herbs are always suitable for rabbit, the choice of which is always at the discretion of the cook. In any case, thyme, oregano and basil will always be appropriate. It is recommended to serve and eat rabbit only hot. Dry or semi-dry red wines are suitable.

Rabbit with olives

Ingredients (4 servings):
rabbit (1.5-2 kg),
500 g tomatoes,
2 onions,
3 cloves of garlic,
100 g olives,
100-200 g white wine,
2 sweet peppers,
4 tbsp. spoons of olive oil,
herbs (thyme, rosemary, dill),
bay leaf,
black pepper,
salt.

Preparation:
Rinse the meat in running water and dry with a towel. Peel the onion and garlic, rinse the greens and chop finely. Fry the rabbit pieces in a saucepan (in hot oil) for about 10 minutes. Salt and pepper the meat. Add onion, garlic, herbs to the saucepan and fry everything for 3-4 minutes. Peel the tomatoes (by pouring boiling water over them), cut each in half, remove the cores and seeds and chop finely. Add tomatoes to the stewing meat, simmer for 3-4 minutes and pour in the wine. Bring the mixture to a boil, pepper and salt. After this, simmer for 25 minutes. 7-10 minutes before the end of cooking, add chopped sweet pepper, and at the very end add olives.

Now you know how to cook rabbit and delight your guests. Bon appetit!