Rabbit Chasseur

Chasseur means “hunter” in French, and this is hunter’s cooking at its most straightforward. Rabbit pieces dusted in flour, seared hard in peanut oil, then braised with a full pound of mushrooms, chopped tomatoes, onions, and two cups of white wine. The oven does the slow work, and a beurre manie pulls the sauce together at the end.

Pouring off the accumulated fat after browning is a step a lot of recipes skip, and you can taste the difference. That leftover oil would make the sauce greasy. Draining it and building the sauce from wine, tomatoes, and the fond stuck to the pan bottom gives you a cleaner, brighter flavor.

A pound of mushrooms is generous, and intentionally so. Mushrooms are the backbone of any chasseur sauce. They release their liquid into the braising wine, concentrating into an earthy, savory base that complements the lean rabbit. Sliced thick so they hold their shape through 45 minutes of oven time.

The beurre manie (butter and flour cooked together briefly) whisked into the finished sauce thickens it into a glossy, spoonable consistency. Cooking the flour for a minute or two before adding it eliminates that raw, pasty taste that uncooked flour leaves behind.

Chef Tips

• Use peanut oil for the sear. Its high smoke point handles the heat needed for browning without burning
• Brown the rabbit over genuinely high heat. You want golden crust, not grey steamed meat
• The wine should come to a full boil on the stovetop before the pan goes in the oven. This cooks off the raw alcohol taste
• Remove bay leaves before serving

Variations

• Use chicken pieces instead of rabbit for a more widely available chasseur
• Add a splash of brandy or Cognac to the sauce before the wine for deeper flavor
• Stir in fresh tarragon at the end for a classic French herb finish