Caramelized Roasted Rabbit
It's August, which means butchering season has started on our farm. While we harvest rabbit almost all year long, we grow chicken, lamb, pork, duck, and goat for butcher in late summer and early fall. It's a lot of work, but it fills our freezers with hundreds and hundreds of pounds of fresh, healthy, and diverse meat options throughout the year.
We created this recipe to highlight the caramelization of our Champagne d'Argent rabbits, but you can easily swap it out for chicken. We serve it over rice with pan juices poured on top.
Ingredients
- 1 whole rabbit, cut into serving pieces (front legs, back legs, loins, ribs)
- 2–3 tsp Highland Oak Farm Chili Garlic Basil Salt
- 8 oz mushrooms, halved or quartered
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 2–3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
- 1–2 tsp honey or brown sugar (helps the jammy caramelization)
- Extra Chili Garlic Basil Salt to taste
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C) — the higher heat helps caramelize. Keep your rabbit spaced out on the pan like in your photo.
- In a bowl, toss mushrooms and cherry tomatoes with olive oil, garlic, red wine vinegar, honey or brown sugar, light sprinkle of Chili Garlic Basil Salt. Spread veg around the rabbit pieces, not on top.
- Roast for 35–40 min until rabbit is golden and veggies are collapsing and sticky. Turn the rabbit once halfway through. If the pan looks too dry before the veggies jam up, add a tiny splash of olive oil or vinegar halfway through.
- For the last 5 min, stir the veggies around to coat them in their own syrupy juices.
- Optional: Broil for 1–2 minutes at the end to blister tomatoes and deepen caramelization.
- Arrange rabbit on a platter with the jammy roasted tomato‑mushroom mix spooned around it.
ENJOY!