After reading through the cookbook thread from front to back, I bought a couple of the recommended works, including How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman. I went straight to the index to look up what it says about rabbit which came as a surprise to me (p. 653 in the 2008 print):
But you can substitute rabbit---which really does taste like chicken---for virtually
any recipe for braised chicken.
This wasn’t at all what I expected. Just to give you some background: due to relatives who live in the country, my family always had a decent supply of rabbit meat. Until say five years ago we had rabbit once every other month, or more often; definitely more frequently than chicken. That said, I don’t recall rabbit to taste anything like chicken up to the point that apart from soup I don’t value the latter very much, while I absolutely love the former.
What I want to know: How does this substitution work? How far does it go (is it limited to braised food)? Is it reversible? What chicken recipe should I try with rabbit meat? Am I prejudiced against chicken ;-)?
References: some threads mention this substitution, but they don’t exactly answer my question.
Best Answer
I would say he is referring to farmed rabbit which does have a very mild flavour akin to chicken especially compared to the wild stuff.