Smoking Rabbit Tonight

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xjcamaro

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Mar 16, 2009
313
13
Western PA
I smoked some rabbit back in the spring, and now that the first half of the rabbit season has passed here in western PA, the second season is in full swing. So tonight im going to take some of the fall's kills and smoke them for a after hunt snack tomorrow. What i do is put the rabbit peices in a simple poultry brine over night, then when i get home from work i will wrap it in bacon and slide it in the smoker. Ill try to get some QView, but last time i did it, the rabbit came out delicious! Almost had a hammy flavor.
 
That sounds great. I smoked squirrel a few years back with no brine or bacon. I used my brisket rub which has a good bit of cumin and chili powder in it. It was really good.
 
Ive read alot of people when they clean the rabbits that they leave them whole. But when i clean my rabbits i cut them up into more manageable peices. i cut out the backstraps on each side so you have a chicken finger sized peice of meat and then i cut all the way around the rear leg joint and pop it out of the joint so the back leg is like a giant chicken leg. makes for some easier eating and more manageble peices.
 
I have only had rabbit once and that was back when I was a young kid. I shot one in our back yard and we cooked it up along with our turkey for thanksgiving and we loved it. My cousins didn't even know is was rabbit until we told them. I would love to try one smoked
 
We usually just throw them in the crock pot at the end of the season with some BBQ sauce and have big family rabbit dinner, but after i smoked some last time, everyone wants me to smoke some more.
 
Ok, here is the Qview, it in the smoker right now, this was prep pictures.

This is in the brine:


This is the two cuts i was talking about, the top is the back leg, and the bottom peice is the back strap:


Here is the rabbit all wrapped up in the bacon, my freinds own bacon, not store bought, although store bought is easier for wrapping.


And here is one section of the smoker with meat on it:


I made three rabbits worth, so 6 legs and 6 straps. We usually are a little hard on the front legs taking head shots, so they usually are not kept.

Ill post more when its done. They are at about 120* right now.
 
MMMmmm~ wabbits!!! Looking forward to the finished goods!
 
Ok here is the finished product. It was a little cold outside and the smoker wasnt exactly cooperating and getting up to temp very well, so i left them in the smoker for about 2 hours at 180*. Then transfered them to the oven to finish cooking. They will be enjoyed tomorrow afternoon after we hunt some more rabbits!
 
Looks awesome...My mother has a rabbit farm (Sort of) and I get all that I want. I have some now that I ground up and Im gonna make breakfast sausage out of it when I get back home.....
 
You have really done that wabbbit justice too. That looks sosooo good I could just eat it all now.
 
2 hours at 180* then finished in the oven? What temp. and how long were they in the oven????? Looks good!!!
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I had to put them in the oven at like 350 for like 40 mins to cook them all the way through. If my smoker would have got up to 235* like it usually does than i would have been fine.

They were great, all was gone in about 5 mins. Would have been better if they were right off the smoker, but they were great anyway. Im going to start looking into a different smoker i think. Something with some insulation and more control.
 
Sounds like a great dish. I'm really interested in seeing some pics. Our rabbit population is in a "down cycle" this year. Went hunting a couple of times but didn't see any. Maybe if I had a beagle..............
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The rabbits came out great, as described in the above post. About 12 peices of rabbit were gone in about 5 minutes. There are also pics above of the rabbits before of the prep, before, during, and after. I have a request do smoke the rest of the rabbits we got this season. Yesterday was the last day of the season and we got about a foot of snow Friday night so needless to say we didnt see any rabbits.

So now with my tax return coming im looking at new smokers, thinking about going propane. Wally World has a CharBroil 2 door propane (an since i work for a propane company i wont have a problem getting cheap propane)
 
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