Braised Rabbit with Prunes

Classic French preparation of rabbit, braised in white wine with shallots and prunes.

By
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Elise Bauer
Elise founded Simply Recipes in 2003 and led the site until 2019. She has an MA in Food Research from Stanford University.
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Updated June 03, 2022
Elise Bauer
Braised Rabbit with Prunes
Elise Bauer

Have you ever made the Silver Palate 80's classic, Chicken Marbella?

It's chicken cooked with prunes and olives. It's amazing how the sweet prunes just melt into the chicken drippings.

Prunes are an underutilized ingredient in my opinion. They've gotten such a bad rap that for years they've been marketed as dried plums, which is, in fact, what they are. Just dried plums. Like big fat raisins.

Used in cooking, plums can bring a deeply sweetly rich note to anything, especially meats.

Rabbit cooked with prunes is a classic French dish, known there as "lapin aux pruneaux". In this version we sear the rabbit pieces first in a little olive oil and butter, and then braise them in white wine with shallots, garlic, thyme, and prunes.

Braised Rabbit with Prunes
Elise Bauer

Have you ever prepared rabbit?

It's a lot like chicken, both in the cooking and in the eating. In fact almost any recipe that can be made with chicken can be made with rabbit, and vice versa. The taste is just more subtle, and not "chicken-y".

An optional step in this recipe, and one that I highly recommend, is to take the rabbit liver that should have come packaged with the rabbit, and purée it with a little vinegar, and then whisk it into the sauce at the end.

Believe it or not, the liver does not impart any taste of liver to the dish, it just makes it richer, and the sauce thicker with a deeper flavor.

This recipe works great for leftovers, much like a stew improves over a day or two. The prunes fall apart into the sauce and the flavors just blend together so every bite is wonderfully savory and sweet.

Braised Rabbit with Prunes

Prep Time 10 mins
Cook Time 75 mins
Total Time 85 mins
Servings 4 servings

Rabbit is available at many specialty markets, if not fresh then frozen, or can usually be ordered from your local butcher.

Whole rabbits are harder to break down than chickens, so ask your butcher to part it out for you (you may need to call ahead so they can defrost one, if all they have are frozen rabbits). Or you can check out Hank's steps for cutting up a rabbit.

This is a pretty basic rabbit with prunes preparation. You can easily dress it up with some stewed tomatoes and or olives. Some recipes call for soaking the olives in cognac and adding them in at the very end, which would be good too.

Ingredients

  • 1 (3- to 3 1/2-pound) rabbit, cut into 6 to 8 serving parts

  • Salt

  • Extra virgin olive oil

  • 1 tablespoon butter

  • 3 to 4 large shallots, sliced, about 1 cup

  • 1 clove garlic, minced

  • 1 cup dry white wine (or chicken stock with a tablespoon of vinegar)

  • Freshly ground black pepper

  • 7 ounces (200g) pitted prunes (dried plums)

  • Several sprigs fresh thyme

  • 1 bay leaf

  • 1 rabbit liver (optional, should be sold with the rabbit)

  • 1 tablespoon vinegar

Method

  1. Brown the rabbit pieces in butter:

    Heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large thick-bottomed Dutch oven (I used a 5 quart) on medium-high heat. Add a tablespoon of butter. Pat dry the rabbit pieces, sprinkle all over with salt, and working in batches, brown on all sides in the pan.

    rabbit meat cut into parts
    Elise Bauer
    brown rabbit parts in dutch oven
    Elise Bauer
  2. Sauté shallots, garlic, deglaze with white wine:

    Remove the rabbit pieces from the pan. Add the sliced shallots, reduce the heat to medium, and cook for 2 minutes. Add the minced garlic clove and cook for 30 seconds more.

    cook shallots in dutch oven for braised rabbit
    Elise Bauer
    deglaze pan with white wine over shallots
    Elise Bauer

    Add the white wine and increase the heat to high. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Let the wine boil, until reduced by at least a half.

  3. Place rabbit, prunes, thyme, bay leaf, on top of shallots in pan, cover and cook:

    Lower the heat to low (you may want to move the pot to the smallest burner on your stove). Arrange the rabbit pieces, prunes, thyme, and bay leaf in the pan. Sprinkle with black pepper to taste.

    add prunes and thyme to rabbit in dutch oven
    Elise Bauer
    cook braised rabbit with prunes
    Elise Bauer

    Cover tightly and let cook for 45 minutes. (Cooking time assumes you are starting with a rabbit that has been brought to near room temp before cooking. If you are using a rabbit straight from the fridge, it may take a few more minutes to cook through. Also, if you keep lifting up the lid to check on the rabbit, it will increase the needed cooking time.)

  4. Optional step using rabbit liver:

    After the rabbit is cooked through, if you want, you can intensify the flavor of the sauce using the rabbit's liver. The liver should have been included with the rabbit from your butcher, just like whole chickens come with the giblets. (Don't worry, the liver won't make your dish taste like liver. You can even try just a little amount to taste to make sure. The liver acts as a "liaison", thickening the sauce and making it richer.)

    Purée the rabbit liver with 1 Tbsp of vinegar (I used wine vinegar, but cider or white vinegar will do). Remove the rabbit pieces, prunes, thyme sprigs, and bay leaf from the pot (discard thyme and bay leaves) to a serving dish.

    Whisk the puréed liver vinegar mixture into the sauce in the pot and cook for another 10 minutes. (If the sauce is still too thin, you can thicken further with corn starch or flour.) Then drizzle the sauce over and around the rabbit and prunes.

    Great served over egg noodles.

Links:

Rabbit in Mustard Sauce here on Simply Recipes

Rabbit Stew with Mushrooms here on Simply Recipes

Chicken Marbella chicken cooked with prunes and olives

Nutrition Facts (per serving)
956 Calories
35g Fat
41g Carbs
106g Protein
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Nutrition Facts
Servings: 4
Amount per serving
Calories 956
% Daily Value*
Total Fat 35g 45%
Saturated Fat 11g 54%
Cholesterol 300mg 100%
Sodium 303mg 13%
Total Carbohydrate 41g 15%
Dietary Fiber 5g 18%
Total Sugars 23g
Protein 106g
Vitamin C 4mg 20%
Calcium 116mg 9%
Iron 9mg 52%
Potassium 1576mg 34%
*The % Daily Value (DV) tells you how much a nutrient in a food serving contributes to a daily diet. 2,000 calories a day is used for general nutrition advice.
Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate. In cases where multiple ingredient alternatives are given, the first listed is calculated for nutrition. Garnishes and optional ingredients are not included.