I got me 6 cottontails and need a good recipe that would show off wild rabbit flovars to someone that has never had one before. I normally just do a stew, but with stew you don't normally taste rabbit meat. Thanks in advance.

One of my absolute favorites is a Cajun Stew (meat & gravy), it's not like what most people think a "stew" is. This is a Fricassee.

Quarter your rabbits up and season with salt & pepper or your favorite Cajun seasoning (no need to brine or marinate for this).
Add just enough oil to coat the bottom of a cast iron Dutch Oven or a Magnalite Pot, medium/high heat and brown the meat.
Reduce heat to medium low and add unsalted butter and a chopped red onion, caramelize the onion until dark.
Add chopped green bell peppers & celery, sauté until soft, then add fresh minced garlic and stir in for a few minutes.
Add a little Wichersister Sauce, a little Louisiana Hot Sauce (for flavor not heat), a little Pickapeppa Sauce, and a little flour.
Stir all that until you have a thick DARK base, then add low sodium chicken broth to form a gravy. Let that simmer for a while uncovered and taste. Add Cajun seasoning/salt, or hot sauce to your liking.
Add the rabbit back to the pot. You want enough gravy to cover the meat. I like to add chopped green onions at this time.
Cover and let simmer until the meat starts falling off the bone. If gravy is too thin, simmer with the lid off. You want the gravy to be kinda thick.

Make a pot of rice & enjoy.


Or grill them,

Leave the rabbits whole. pop the legs and the ribs so that they'll lay flat. Marinate them overnight in orange juice with a little lemon juice, Cholula Hot Sauce, Wichersister Sauce, onions & garlic. Use heavy duty foil layed on the grill with the ends bent up to hold in the juices (kinda like foil boats), over a medium direct heat fire.
Pull the rabbits out and dust them with your favorite seasoning, lay them down on the foil boats over some unsalted butter and close the lid. Flip when you have color, & baste with the melted butter.

When done, you can eat like that or you can glaze them. If glazing I remove them from the foil boats, brush with melted strawberry preserves (or whatever you like) and toss back on the open grill until the glaze sets up. They are really good this way also.

Here's one I've used before. Saw it in Grey's sporting journal many moons ago.

Bone out the back legs and remove the backstraps and use them. Run the backstraps through a grinder mix with grated carrot, radishes, chopped up spinich and some diced onion, add some garlic, salt and pepper. Stuff that mixture into the boned out legs. Dust them in some seasoned bread crumbs.The recipe I saw said to put them straight into the oven at 350 for an hour. I fry mine for a minute or so on each side it's the only thing I've found to really break down connective tissue and silver skin in a hurry. Then I put em in the oven. Couldn't tell you a time I just usually have one I check for doneness.

Bread and fry like chicken.

My favorite way

I always like cottontail like my mother used to cook it.

a little bacon grease in a skillet over low heat, roll rabbit pieces in seasoned flour, place in skillet and cover with lid. cook for 10 or so minutes, remove lid and turn meat, replace lid and go another 10 or so minutes. Remove meat to a plate and use same skillet ... finely chopped some onion, about a TB butter into skillet and sauté until onions are tender, put 1 TB flour and stir, then about 1/2 cup chicken stock and stir until it starts to thicken, then add ~1 TB sour cream and stir until combined. Might want to double the gravy recipe to use over mashed potatoes

Sour cream...I've never used that in a gravy, need to try.

I am gunna print this thread

This sounds good. I have to try it and a couple of others on here.

This is what I do and it’s great

My Grandmother was born in 1886 and she feed the family lots of cottontails. She fixed it just like fried chicken. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

Grandma Altwein made a stew.

This right here is awesome!

I used to deliver cleaned rabbits on ice to a few Elders that were born long before me. They wanted cottontails because that was soul food for them, and they couldn't just jump in the truck and go hunting anymore. I shot a [censored] load of rabbits illegally off of FM roads, cleaned them and delivered to folks..........back in the day.......lots of fried rabbit, and rabbits & gravy.

I recently tried this with some pan seared pork chops, the sour cream adds a whole different level to the gravy.

Not so much in hard winter; but watch for those giant worms along the back in summer. Fried as above.

Mine was shot in January. I personally never hunt rabbits in the anytime excluding winter only after a good freeze. I was also taught to wait till after the first frost. I take it a step further with a good freeze.

Old wives tale. I hunt & eat them year round and especially during the Summer at night. The rabbits I hunt in S Texas actually have MORE wolves (bot fly larvae) during the Winter vs the Summer. I too heard all of that growing up, but it's never been the case where I'm at.

Interesting, I will try it.

Same here, more so with the little desert rabbits that we have a ton of.

May be because you’re in “south Texas” and not North Texas. I see them all the time in the summer and not in the winter. But, there are a lot of south Texas counties with stuff not seen in north Texas. Deer disease, tons of ticks…

I've cooked them a few times. Braised with herbs is my favorite. They've got a lot of bones, and probably aren't worth the effort for the small amount of meat. Kind of a novelty thing to cook IMO.

I didn't watch the video, but I've cooked many a rabbit on a stick roasted over a campfire when I was a kid...with no seasoning at all, and it was damn good when you're hungry. When I was a young teenager a buddy & I used to get dropped off on a ranch with tents, guns, & water. We hunted for our food every weekend and rabbits were always the first to die. Those were actually some of the best days of my life. Getting dropped off with no food and told to go find supper. To this day, all of my kids & I love to hunt & cook cottontails.