Classic Wild Rabbit in Red Wine Stew Recipe

Classic Wild Rabbit in Red Wine Stew Recipe

Wild rabbit might not immediately strike people as a sexy dish. Cooking rabbit might appear to be a rustic, peasant style of cooking but the meat is delicious & low in fat. This week, my butcher had 15 local wild rabbits it, so it was time to try again. My last attempt at roasting wild rabbit was a mess, with the toughest meet known to man, in spite of 5 hours of cooking.

This time, more research was required and some local insight curtesy of one of our Westbourne locals. It seems that rabbit can be cooked to a tender stage in as little as 2 hours but this depends very much on the particular rabbit in question! To ensure the best possible recipe, three different variants of the wild rabbit stew were produced and the following recipe won in the taste off:

Classic Wild Rabbit Dumpling Stew in Red Wine Recipe

Wild Rabbit in Red Wine Stew Ingredients

1 wild rabbit (chopped)
2 large onions (finely chopped)
3 celery stalks (finely chopped)
1 large carrot (finely chopped)
2 cloves of garlic
1 large glass of red wine
2 large glasses of chicken or veal stock
1 bay leaf
6 sprigs of thyme (chopped)
6 sprigs of parsley (chopped)
1 teaspoon of smoked paprika
1 teaspoon of brown sugar

Cooking the Wild Rabbit Stew in Red Wine

1. Prepare the wild rabbit by dusting in flour seasoned with salt & pepper
2. Brown the wild rabbit pieces in a pan (preferably the pot used to cook the stew in – a Creuset or Dutch Oven work best)
3. Once browned, remove the rabbit, and brown the onions, celery and carrot.
4. When onion is transparent, add the rabbit back into the pan, and add the remaining ingredients.
5. Cook in the oven for at least 2 hours to ensure tender & tasty rabbit, checking the tenderness as the dish cooks.
6. If you are including dumplings, add the dumplings for the last 20 minutes.