If you like fried chicken, you’ll like this fried rabbit recipe. We sous vide the rabbit before breading and frying it for two reasons:

1. The sous vide cooks the rabbit to our target temperature before it goes into the fryer. This shortens the amount of time the rabbit is in the fryer because it does not need to cook internally. The rabbit is fried just long enough for the breading to get golden brown and crispy.

2. A quartered rabbit in a sous vide bath will reach the target temperature in under an hour, but we cook the rabbit for 90 minutes. This extra time breaks down some of the proteins, yielding a more tender dish.

Because most rabbits aren’t all that tough, the amount of time it is cooked sous vide is relatively short compared to something like beef short ribs or venison shanks. Just a little bit of extra time in the water bath helps ensure that every rabbit we cook, no matter how mature, is tender. 

We have applied this “cook-tenderize-then fry” method with all types of proteins, but it works particularly well with wild game. Because rabbits, like most wild game, are so lean, extended periods of time in a deep fryer will result in an overcooked exterior, which will be dry and stringy in texture.

An added bonus to this order of operations is that we can cook the rabbits ahead of time and keep them in the bag until we are ready to fry it. When doing this, we chill the bagged rabbit meat down in an ice bath right after it comes out of the sous vide. Once chilled, it’ll keep for a few days in the fridge. 

Other than the sous vide part, which is pretty simple, this recipe goes along like any fried chicken recipe. Dredge, egg wash, dredge and fry. You could do a single dredge instead of a double, but because rabbit meat is skin free, we feel that the extra crispy bits that a double dip produces better simulates the best part of fried chicken.

After eating this fried rabbit recently, Rachel and I were lamenting the fact that we only have a few rabbits left in the freezer. Unlike previous years, we didn’t get to do as much rabbit hunting as we like to do. Next season, we’ll be making it a point to put more future-fried rabbit in the freezer.

Sous Vide Fried Rabbit

Servings: around 2

Prep time: 15 minutes

Cook time: 2 hours, including sous vide

Ingredients:

1 rabbit, quartered, saddle split crosswise

1 cup flour

½ cup milk

1 egg

1 tbsp Old Bay

Method:

Preheat the sous vide water bath to 147F.

Season the rabbit with salt and pepper. Bag with a splash of cooking oil.

Cook in the sous vide for 90 minutes.

Preheat frying oil to 350-375F. Mix Old Bay into flour in a bowl. Mix milk and egg together in a separate bowl.

Remove rabbit pieces from bag, shake off excess liquid. Dredge in flour mixture, shake off excess, roll in the egg wash, shake off excess, dredge again in the flour.

Repeat for all pieces of rabbit.

Fry in batches until golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Serve hot with hot sauce.