Nashville Hot Rabbit Skillet
Fried rabbit and a hot ancho-lard baste, cooked over a fire in one cast iron pan.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 10 oz
- cal / oz
- 72
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 5, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Rabbit, dressed and quartered | 2 rabbits | cooler-packed, or use quartered chicken |
|---|---|---|
| Seasoned flour | 3 cups | split into two bags, one for each dredge |
| Buttermilk powder | 1/2 cup | mixed with 2 cups water at camp |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Frying oil | 2 inches in the pot | peanut or canola |
| Lard | 1 cup | duck fat or plain oil works |
| Ancho chili powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | for the drizzle |
Method
- Whisk the buttermilk powder into 2 cups of cold water. Let it sit while you build the fire.
- Get a bed of coals going and set a deep cast iron pot on the grate with two inches of oil. You want 325-350F. A pinch of flour should sizzle, not scorch.
- Salt and pepper the rabbit. Roll each piece in flour, drop it in the buttermilk, then back into the second bag of flour.
- Set the coated pieces on a plate and leave them ten minutes. The crust needs that time to grip or it slides off in the oil.
- Fry in batches, a few pieces at a time, about 12 to 15 minutes, turning once. Crowding the pot drops the temperature and gives you soggy crust.
- Pull the pieces onto a rack or a folded paper bag. Keep the fire hot between batches.
- Melt the lard in a small pan at the edge of the coals. Stir in the ancho, brown sugar, and garlic powder off the heat.
- Brush the hot sauce over each piece, then drizzle honey over the top.
Nashville hot is a technique, not a bird. The heat lives in fat, not in a batter, so it goes on after frying and works on anything with a crust. Rabbit is leaner than chicken, which means the fat baste is doing more than flavor work here.
Two changes for camp. Buttermilk becomes powder and water, since a jug of it will not survive a cooler for long. And the ten-minute rest after the second dredge is not optional over a fire, where your oil temperature swings more than a stove ever will.
Packing
Rabbit stays frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws over the drive. Seasoned flour goes in two labeled bags at home so you are not measuring beside a fire. Lard and the spice mix travel together in one screw-top jar.
Variations
- Cayenne in place of half the ancho if you want the traditional burn.
- Skip the deep fry and shallow-fry in an inch of oil in a skillet. Less oil to pack out, more turning.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/nashville-hot-style-fried-rabbit-with-honey-drizzle