i tagged a rabbit last weekend, cleaned it, seasoned it, put it in foil with lots of veggies and butter over slightly direct heat. it turned out ok... tasted like chicken but good and lean. i feel like there are probably better ways to go about this.

quarter and fry it..I like to use a batter instead of breading..

can you spell BBQ. very good.

Smothered Rabbit

Cut rabbit in quarters and leave back whole or cut in half

Season with your favorite spices, flour pieces and brown in skillet.

Remove rabbit quarters/pieces from skillet leaving a little oil

Add some diced onions, fresh chopped mushrooms (optional) saute.

Add flour to make a roux, water or milk to make gravy to a thin consistency and add rabbit pieces.

Slowly simmer for 45 minutes to an hour covered.

Serve over rice or egg noddles; jalapeno cornbread of biscuits work good too.

i like to make rabbit and dumplins!

Works good with squirrels too!!

I used to hunt and eat a lot of rabbit in my younger days.
Here is my favorite way to cook -- and everyone who has tried it this way comes back for more.
Skin and clean rabbit-- wash down to remove any junk from cleaning and skinning.
You have to use a wood burning OLD SMOKEY pit. If you have ever seen one you would know what I'm talking about here. They are shaped kinda like a tall bullet. We would usually prepare 4~6 rabbits at a time.
The OLD SMOKEY has a pan in the bottom once fire is hot fill the pan with your fave beer. cover and let cook.
every 10 min or so brush down with picante sauce and turn.
Rabbit should be done in about 20 ~ 30 min depending on heat

Quarter, season and brown in enough oil to barely cover the pan, then take out of dutch oven pot(on stove top)

In pot, brown two chopped onions, 1/2 bell pepper, three chopped garlic cloves, and two chopped celery stalks.

Add 1 can of Rotel(diced tomatoes) and two cans of tomatoe sauce with equal amounts of water.

Simmer for 10 minutes, add 2 rabbits. Simmer, stirring occasionally for 35 minutes. Add 1/2 can of cream of mushroom soup, simmer for 15 minutes and then enjoy over rice.

STOP. If I eat this late I'll get heartburn!!!

those all sound awesome! I am gonna have to get some rabbits!

Cottontail are related to the european rabbit, which is the ancestor to all breeds of the domestic rabbit. It is a white, dense (40% water vs. 60+% water for chicken) bland meat.

The majority of the meat on a rabbit is on the saddle (backstrap) and back legs.

Randall and I do a lot of cottontail hunting, and when we process them, we keep the saddle and back legs in one bag, the front legs and ribs in another. The back of the rabbit is better for frying and cooking with drier methods, the front is best saved for stewing or smothering in a sauce.

This is true for any small, white-fleshed game - squirrel, cottontail, (and more up north than down here) woodchucks.

Now, there is a difference between the cottontail rabbit, which is a true rabbit, and the Jackrabbit, which is a hare. Hares have dark meat, and farther north, snoeshoes and other hares are also dark-meated. Treat them as any dark red game meat. My dad called them "the poor-man's venison", and you can cook them any way you cook deer meat.

For more info on this, see my page on our web site:

www.shoestringsafaris.com

Lora