Slow Cooked Rabbit in White Wine and Garlic

When I asked the vendor at the farmer's market how to prepare the rabbit, he recommended to cook it with white wine in a slow cooker. I was searching around the Internet for inspirations and came across this recipe, which is super simple and came out great. One thing I did find out is that rabbit is mostly very lean meat, and even in a slow cooker it can be a bit dry. This was easily solved by making a reduction sauce from the leftover broth and drowning the meat in it. So good...

This recipe would also work great with a whole chicken.

Source: christinecooks
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 8-10 hours
Yields: depends on the size of the rabbit, 2-4 portions

Ingredients:

• 1 whole rabbit, skinned
• 12 cloves of garlic, whole
• 6 cippolini onions, peeled and whole
• 10-12 fresh thyme sprigs
• 2 bays leaves, fresh if you have them
• 1 cup cooked bacon pieces
• 5-6 whole peppercorns
• sea salt pepper to taste
• 1 plus ½ cups dry white wine, divided
• 1 cup broth
• 3 tbsp. butter

Directions:

1. Place the onions, garlic and peppercorns in the bottom of a slow cooker.
2. Sprinkle with half the bacon and thyme sprigs.
3. In a skillet, sear the rabbit with the bacon fat on all sides.
4. Place the rabbit in the slow cooker on top of the onions.
5. Pour half the wine into the hot skillet and scrape the bottom, allowing it to reduce by half.
6. Pour this over the rabbit and sprinkle the remaining bacon and thyme.
7. Add the broth and rest of the wine into the slow cooker.
8. Cook on high for 4 hours, then on low for 4-6 hours.
9. It's okay to carefully turn the rabbit over once or twice.
10. When tender, remove thyme stems, and transfer rabbit to a large plate.
11. Strain the broth, and add the bacon, some garlic and onions to the plate.
12. In a sauce pan, reduce about 2 cups of the broth down to half a cup. It's ok to add some garlic - mash it up.
13. Add the butter, stir, and pour over rabbit.