Lapin a La Cocotte…French Rabbit Stew

Succulent rabbit, stewed in red wine and stock...delicious!

The French love to use rabbit in dishes; since I love French cooking, this dish is one I have had on my list to make for a while now.  Rabbit can be difficult to find in stores, but I recently found some at the local market and quickly snapped it up.  The shocked look on the face of the checkout clerk was priceless!  I highly recommend giving this a try, rabbit is delicious!  Trust me!

The title of this post, Lapin a La Cocotte, is literally translated as The Rabbit Casserole.  It’s a simmered stew of rabbit meat in red wine and stock that makes the rabbit so tender and succulent.  The stewing juices form a perfectly delightful sauce (or gravy as you may wish). It may sound fancy but, I assure you, this is a very simple dish.

While the recipe I used suggested it be served with mashed potatoes or buttered noodles, I chose instead to make some beautiful baby potatoes in parsley butter.  Smashed with our forks on the plate and dabbed in the sauce, I’d only wished I’d made more than I had!

I’ve often said I don’t really follow recipes completely, and this is no exception, but I adapted the recipe I found at Food.com.

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Lapin a La Cocotte…French Rabbit Stew

 

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Lapin a La Cocotte…The Rabbit Casserole. French rabbit stew.

Author: The Saucy Southerner, as adapted from Food.com

Recipe type: Main Course

Ingredients

• 3 pounds rabbit, quartered
• 2 tablespoons bacon fat *
• 1½ cups sliced onions
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 2 teaspoons dried parsley
• 2 bay leaves
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. In a medium-sized Dutch oven or heavy flat-bottomed roasting pan, melt the bacon fat.
2. Add the onions and garlic.
3. Cook until translucent; remove from the pan.**
4. Add the rabbit pieces and sauté over medium heat until rabbit is golden brown on each side.
5. Sprinkle on the flour and continue to brown rabbit for another 5 minutes or so, then add the onions and garlic back in the pan along with the chicken stock, red wine, thyme, parsley and bay leaves.
6. With a wooden spoon, stir the bottom of the pan to loosen the browned bits on the bottom.
7. Cover and simmer over low heat for about an hour, adding more stock if necessary. Salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

*I keep bacon drippings (Benton’s Bacon drippings, as a matter of fact) in a jar in my refrigerator. If you don’t, just cut up about 4 slices of thick cut bacon, brown them in your pan, remove the bacon (reserving it for future use) and use the rendered bacon fat from that. **I am suggesting removing the onions and garlic from the pan because I thought they got a bit too browned when I browned the rabbit. Also, they got in the way! I’ll be doing this step the next time.

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Blurry browning rabbit...I'm still getting used to my new lens!

With the wine, stock and herbs added...

After simmering for a bit...just look at how brown and developed that sauce has become!

So pretty on the plate, but better from fork to mouth!

Try this!  I suppose, if you’re squeamish about rabbit, you could do this with chicken…but you’ll be missing out on rich, robust, rabbit!

P~