Rabbit Legs with Potatoes

Name: Baked Rabbit with Potatoes and Rosemary in the Oven
Prep time: 3 h
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 4 h
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Rabbit legs (220-250 g each) 2; Rosemary (fresh) 2-3 sprigs; Dry white wine 1 cup (200 ml); Vegetable oil 1/3 cup; Garlic 1-2 cloves; Potatoes 0.5 kg; Salt, black pepper, dried savory (or an Italian herb mix) to taste; Green salad or arugula for serving, optional

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4 h

Well-cooked rabbit is tender, incredibly tasty and lean, and paired with roasted potatoes it makes a great choice for a festive dinner. Today I cooked rabbit pieces in the oven: rabbit and potatoes in a light wine marinade, baked until golden.

Rabbit meat is quite low in calories, and it is often recommended as a replacement for pork. It is rich in vitamin C and B vitamins, with plenty of trace elements and minerals. Rabbit also contains a fair amount of sodium.

There are many ways to cook rabbit. Usually it is cut into portion-sized pieces before cooking, though there are plenty of recipes for a whole rabbit too. Rabbit can be boiled, baked, fried, and even smoked. And it always turns out delicious. Cooked rabbit goes best with vegetable sides, mashed or fried potatoes, and boiled rice.

To my taste, almost the perfect ways to cook rabbit are the recipes for rabbit with rosemary and rabbit in wine. Each recipe has something that makes the flavor unique.

A side of fried or baked potatoes goes perfectly with baked rabbit. Everyone fries potatoes their own way. As a friend of mine says, a potato is a potato, even in Africa. Everyone cuts them differently, too. I like them cut into thick sticks, fried in a little vegetable oil, with finely chopped onion added right at the end of frying.

For frying, we usually cut the potatoes, then salt and pepper them. And almost always add a pinch of finely ground dried savory (not thyme). That makes the potatoes aromatic.

Cooking rabbit is not difficult. Buy cut rabbit at the store, taking whichever parts of the carcass you like. Legs are sold separately, as are pieces cut across the spine. A portion of 200-250 grams is plenty for one serving, considering you will have the same amount of fried potatoes. You can also use potatoes with rosemary.

Not counting the marinating and the wait while it bakes in the oven, it takes no more than 10 minutes of actual work. The recipe is simple and easy to repeat.

More with chicken legs and potatoes

Braised Rabbit Legs

2 h

Steamed Chicken Patties

30 min

Baked Drumsticks with Potatoes in Tomato Sauce

1 h 30 min

Stewed Potatoes with Boiled Chicken

1 h 15 min

Chicken with Prunes: Pan-Stewed Thigh Fillet

45 min

More chicken legs recipes

Ingredients

2 servings

Rabbit legs (220-250 g each) 2
Rosemary (fresh) 2-3 sprigs
Dry white wine 1 cup (200 ml)
Vegetable oil 1/3 cup
Garlic 1-2 cloves
Potatoes 0.5 kg
Salt, black pepper, dried savory (or an Italian herb mix) to taste
Green salad or arugula for serving, optional

Step-by-step recipe

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How to marinate the rabbit

I am still not sure whether rabbit needs to be soaked in acidulated water. People always talk about some smell. The smell of wild hare really is removed only by acidulated water. Farm-raised rabbit has no smell at all. Still, for this recipe we marinate the rabbit in a light wine marinade first, and the dish turns out especially tasty.
Prepare the rabbit: wash it and try to remove all the membranes left after butchering. Pierce the pieces right through with a knife at the thickest point so the meat marinates better.
Season the rabbit pieces: add a little salt and ground black pepper. I recommend grinding the peppercorns right before cooking rather than using pre-ground pepper. Sprinkle with 1-2 pinches of crumbled dried savory or a dried Italian herb mix: basil, oregano, savory, and so on.
Marinate the rabbit in wine: place the rabbit legs in a ceramic or glass dish, add 1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and flattened with the flat of a knife, tuck in sprigs of fresh rosemary, and pour dry white wine over everything. People often ask which wine. I use Traminer or Chardonnay.
Leave the rabbit to marinate in the refrigerator for 3 hours.

How to prepare the potatoes

Preheat the oven to 220-230°C.
Prepare the potatoes: peel them and cut into large pieces, about the size of half an egg. Season the cut potatoes with salt and pepper to taste and add a pinch of dried aromatic herbs. Toss and let stand for 10 minutes so the salt dissolves. Then add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to the potatoes and toss.

How to bake rabbit with potatoes in the oven

Assemble the dish: take the rabbit pieces out of the marinade, pat them dry with a paper towel and brush with vegetable oil. Put the potatoes on the bottom of a ceramic or glass baking dish, then the rabbit pieces on top, along with the rosemary sprigs and garlic cloves from the marinade. Drizzle the remaining vegetable oil over the potatoes and rabbit, there should be only a little left, 2 tbsp at most. Add 3-4 tbsp of the marinade to the dish to keep the rabbit juicy.
Put the dish in the preheated oven, uncovered, and note when the liquid at the bottom begins to boil. Both the rabbit and the potatoes start cooking after about 10-15 minutes, once it comes to a boil. 10 minutes after boiling begins, take out and discard the rosemary sprigs.
Bake until the potatoes are done, about 30 mins from the start of boiling. The dish is ready when the potatoes are: just pierce a piece with the tip of a knife, and it should go in easily. If the potatoes are baked, the rabbit is definitely done. Add a little extra time to let the rabbit brown.

Serving

Plate it up: arrange green salad or arugula leaves around the edge, put a piece of baked rabbit in the center and place the baked potatoes around it.
Serve the rabbit with potatoes right away, while the meat is still very hot and the potatoes haven’t cooled.

Calories and macros

720 kcal

Serving ≈ 420 g

Protein41 g23% of kcal
Fat41 g52% of kcal
Carbs42 g24% of kcal

100 g171 kcalProtein 9.7 gFat 9.6 gCarbs 10 g

Calculated from the recipe ingredients, excluding salt and spices. Data: USDA and Matvaretabellen.

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