Recipe This | Slow Cooker Rabbit Stew (2024)

Slow Cooker Rabbit Stew. A truly delicious creamy slow cooker rabbit stew loaded with seasonal vegetables and a creamy French style sauce made with the rabbit juices as it cooks.

Slow Cooker RabbitStew

This slow cooker rabbit stew is part of our stews and casseroles theme this month on Recipe This. We recently shared with you our slow cooker venison stew and today it is all about the rabbit.

I grew up in England and I don’t know anyone that had eatenrabbit or even considered making slow cooker rabbit stew. It just wasn’tsomething that you ate. Instead you would eat what I would call the commonmeats such as beef, chicken, pork, lamb and turkey.

But living in Portugal and being part of the Mediterraneanlifestyle means that rabbit plays a big part in regular cooking.

The same can also be said for a lot of other Europeancountries such as Spain, France and Italy. If you have never tried rabbit stewbefore, then I suggest you give it a go as cooked right it is delicious.

The funny thing is, that even though rabbit is freelyavailable in Portugal and that my son always had it at school dinners, therabbit that I am using in todays slow cooker rabbit stew came from Spain.

We were on our summer holiday in Spain and visited our favouriteSpanish supermarket before crossing the border back into Portugal. It is amassive supermarket chain in Spain and is slowly opening stores in Portugal,though not in our area.

But what we love about the Spanish supermarket is the choiceof fish and meat, that you just can’t get in Portugal. I loaded the trolleywith a huge amount of meat and while grabbing some boneless chicken thighs I noticedsome rabbit.

The rabbit was chopped like chicken is chopped for making chicken fricassee and I dumped two lots into my trolley ready for making a delicious rabbit stew in the slow cooker.

French Rabbit Stew

Our slow cooker rabbit stew has a French theme as that ishow we like most of our casseroles and stews. If you want to be able to cook Frenchfood on a cheap budget then this is it.

You achieve the amazing French rabbit stew flavours thanksto:

• White Wine
• Garlic
• Bacon
• Cream

For a finished dish I would say my slow cooker rabbit stewis like a carbonara. Thanks to the creamy sauce. Plus like with a lot of Frenchfood you only need to dice the garlic rather than grate it, making it easier toprepare.

Easy Slow CookerRabbit Stew

Can we call this rabbit stew easy slow cooker rabbit stew?Because it is just so easy to prep and cook. The slow cooker does the hard workso that you don’t have to.

It is a typical slow cooker recipe of dump and start. Throwin your rabbit stew ingredients into your slow cooker and then come back a fewhours later to perfectly cooked rabbit in a delicious stew.

My husband who is an ex chef, claimed that the rabbit stewwas stunning and went back for seconds!

How To Slow Cook Rabbit?

There is often that fear when we cook something new. It’salso about the unknown or if we have paid extra for something, then you don’twant to screw it up.

Well I suggest that you think of rabbit like chicken. Ittastes similar to chicken, but it is a little drier. Just like how lamb minceis drier than beef mince.

Quite often when you buy rabbit, it will come already preppedfor you or you can ask your butcher to do this for you.

In our case it was prepped like fricassee. You had plenty ofchunks all of which are still on the bone and all of which are easy to cook andthen eat.

The most important thing to learn about cooking rabbit isthat those bones are small, so if you slow cook for too long, you could end upwith little bones in your rabbit stew. To avoid this, take the rabbit to justbeen cooked so that its not in tiny pieces in your slow cooker.

How To Slow CookRabbit Stew?

To slow cook rabbit stew is easy. I always start bypeeling all the vegetables that I plan on using, dicing them and making surethey are clean. I always go with vegetables that I would associate with Frenchcooking for a more French rabbit stew.

Once I have prepped the vegetables, I will add seasoning andthe rabbit.

Now the slow cooker will do its magic and all you have to dois add in a few simple extra ingredients at the end of the cooking time.

It is one of those slow cooker stew recipes that has the wow factor, without much effort going into the cooking process. Or the kind of stew you can serve family when they come around for dinner.

What To Serve RabbitStew With?

For me the rabbit stew on its own is a delicious meal and agreat one pot dinner. But its also nice to have sides with your slow cookermeals.

My first thought will always involve lots of butter and abig French bread stick. I mean you really can’t beat that can you?

Here are a few other serving suggestions for the rabbitstew:

• Bread Maker Dinner Rolls
• Air Fryer Dumplings
• Instant Pot Garlic Spaghetti
• Air Fryer Roast Potatoes

Can’t make it now? Then pin it for later!