Roasted Rabbit With Olives and Feta

Name: Roasted Rabbit With Olives and Feta
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 2 to 4 servings
Ingredients: 1 3-pound rabbit, cut into 8 pieces (your butcher can do this); 1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary; 2 teaspoons chopped fresh oregano; 6 garlic cloves, crushed and peeled; 2 teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste; 1/2 teaspoon black pepper; 1/2 cup white wine, not too dry, such as riesling; 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil; 5 thin slices lemon, seeded; 1/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved; 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces; 4 ounces feta cheese, preferably French, crumbled

By Melissa Clark

Total Time: 45 minutes, plus 1 hour marinating
Rating: 5(85)
Comments: Read comments

Rabbit is mild and just a little earthy tasting, with silky meat that stays moist if you take care not to overcook it. Here it’s quickly roasted with olives, lemon and feta cheese, which melts into a creamy pan sauce to spoon on top. Try to find French feta, which is softer and mellower than its assertive Greek and Bulgarian cousins. While the recipe calls for white wine, you can also make this dish with a light-bodied red. Serve it with crusty bread for scooping up the good, savory sauce.

And if you must, yes, you can substitute chicken for the rabbit. Just increase the roasting time, before you add the feta, by 10 minutes.

Featured in: Hop, Skip and a Jump: Rabbit the Easy Way

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Ingredients

Yield:2 to 4 servings

13-pound rabbit, cut into 8 pieces (your butcher can do this)
1tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
2teaspoons chopped fresh oregano
6garlic cloves, crushed and peeled
2teaspoons kosher salt, more to taste
½teaspoon black pepper
½cup white wine, not too dry, such as riesling
1tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
5thin slices lemon, seeded
¼cup pitted kalamata olives, halved
4tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4ounces feta cheese, preferably French, crumbled

Ingredient Substitution Guide

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Preparation

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Step 1
Place rabbit pieces in a large bowl and toss with rosemary, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
Step 2
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a small saucepan over medium heat, simmer wine until reduced by half.
Step 3
Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add rabbit pieces and garlic in a single layer and cook until meat is golden brown, 3 to 4 minutes a side. (If the garlic gets too dark before the rabbit is finished browning, put the garlic on top of the rabbit to keep it from cooking more.)
Step 4
Put lemon slices, olives and half the butter into the pan. Pour in reduced wine. Cover and transfer to oven for 5 minutes. Uncover and scatter feta over top. Continue cooking until rabbit is just cooked through, 5 to 10 minutes more. Stir in remaining butter and more salt if needed, and serve.

Ratings

5 out of 5

85 user ratings

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Comments

Helene7 years ago

While the flavors were very good, rabbit cannot be “quickly roasted”. It requires more cooking time and a braising technique or longer roasting. Sautéed then roasted for a total of approximately 20 or so minutes produces a chewy/tough result.
I have several rabbit recipes and the shortest roasting time is 1 hour.
Typically, I really like most of Melissa's recipes but this one needs (in my opinion) some major revision in preparation.

s-monk5 years ago

I've made this recipe several times, with mostly minor adjustments depending on my mood. I've done it, for example, with a whole rabbit, which I've cut up into serving pieces when it's done. It doesn't take much longer, is easier to make and easier to cut up than raw rabbit, and it allows me to put lemon slices, garlic, and rosemary inside the cavity while it's cooking.

Gregory3 years ago

You overcooked it. 10-15 minutes max will yield a perfect result. Braised rabbit typically takes an hour or more, but this is a roasted rabbit, and the shorter cooking time is better.

Rocky1 year ago

I’ve not made this recipe with rabbit, but it sure is good with bone-in skin off chicken thighs.

Lark1 year ago

This was delicious. We made it into a weeknight meal by soaking the rabbit in cultured milk (yogurt, kefir, etc) along with seasonings for only 30 minutes. I roasted the rabbit at 375, covered, until the last five minutes. We raise rabbits and cook it regularly. Marinating in cultured milk has been a game changer. We regularly roast and grill rabbit and it's always tender.

Charles2 years ago

I used a 2 1/2 pound rabbit and rubbed the herb mixture on both sides before letting it rise to 68 degrees at the core, nearly room temperature. After ten minutes in the oven I had core temps between 155 and 180 degrees. The rub was amazing as was the surface of the rabbit but most of it was tough and chewy. I may try this again at a lower oven temp for longer based on other comments here. The tastes and most of the textures were worth repeating, and the lemons were surprisingly tasty.

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