Confit is basically a dish where a piece of meat is braised over a long period of time in its own fat to cook it and generate an exceedingly tender entree. Given the fact that we opted to cook with Rabbit Legs, the key phrase of “in its own fat” became an immediate obstacle. Rabbit is extremely lean, and so there really isn’t a way to cook it in its own nonexistent fat.
We solved this problem by looking to the back of our freezer, where we always have a bag of Duck and/or Goose fat from prior whole bird purchases where we’ve frozen bits of fat/skin spread out on a cookie sheet before transferring the nuggets into a zip top freezer bag for future use.
Initially, we layered a few bits of goose skin under our rabbit, but doing it that way meant a lot of basting, so we think next time, we will arrange the skin on top of our rabbit meat so it bastes as it cooks and is more like a traditional confit.
We served our rabbit over red and white quinoa and paired it with a Truffled Honey Carrot Zucchini Cup. However, this would also go really well with mashed or Roasted Potatoes and steamed vegetables.
Time: 8 Hours (Most of which is letting the slow cooker work its magic)
Ingredients:
- Rabbit Legs. Check out our post on How to Break Down a Rabbit.
- Duck or Goose Fat. Save some skin next time you Break Down a Goose or a Duck!
- Salt
- Ground White Pepper
- Optional: Truffle Infused Olive Oil
Method:
- Sprinkle some kosher or sea salt over your rabbit legs, and then crack some fresh white pepper on them.
- Arrange the legs in your slow cooker so they all lay flat, and top them with your defrosted duck or goose skin.
- Set your slow cooker to low, and cook for 6-8 hours. Check and baste periodically as needed, and at the 6 hour mark, you may want to change the crockpot temperature from low to “keep warm.”
- Plate, devour, and enjoy!
