I've only eaten rabbit once and it was bathed in garlic butter so I don't really remember it. Besides the "tastes like chicken hehe" stereotype, is there any knock-your-socks-off dish made with rabbit where it's center stage?

Rabbit is a pretty important part of traditional Maltese cuisine, rabbit stew is often considered a national dish, fried rabbit is also fairly common.

First time I heard of rabbit being considered to taste like chicken, they taste nothing alike.

Paella is commonly made with rabbit in Spain.

Lapin aux pruneaux is a wonderful dish. Serve with salad and mashed potato or french fries

https://bordeauxkitchen.com/rabbit-with-prunes-lapin-aux-pru...

You can coat the rabbit meat with Dijon mustard and cook it to make "Lapin à la moutarde" too!

It's not a knock-your-socks-off dish, I don't think the meat has enough qualities for such a dish (not enough of a distinct taste or texture or quantity), but it's always nice to have!

Brunswick stew is hearty[0], usually rabbit or squirrel traditionally, but these days with chicken. The Maltese variety as mentioned elsewhere is called Stuffat Tal Fenek as is very nice, having tried it in Malta.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunswick_stew

It's quite common in Spain, in my family we eat that ~6 times a year. Honestly delicious, but I understand why people won't eat it.

My granny in Hungary always cooked it like your regular chicken soup (consomme) but of course replacing the chicken with rabbit

Like this https://streetkitchen.hu/receptek/nyulhusleves

Hare is pretty common game here in Finland and I think I must have eaten that fairly regularly when I was little but I have absolutely no recollection what it actually tasted like.

Only recipe I've seen was indeed a stew where the ingredients were almost "one rabbit, unholy amounts of garlic".

> is there any knock-your-socks-off dish

you need an example of what you consider such a dish.

Rabbits are pretty decent, as a kid we used to have quite a few of them at the village (along with all other kind of animals, incl. lambs, pigs, and goats). Either way it's rather easy to tell the meat apart and most meat(s) can be prepared to be delicious.

It used to be more common in the U.K. but it’s pretty rare now. Stews and braising were the traditional way to cook it as older ones are kind of tough.

Hmm. It's made me think about Lièvre à la Royale (Hare à la Royale), but of course Hares are not rabbits (they taste gamier).

The guys from Fallow made a video on YouTube about attempting to make a really good one.

Apparently Lapin à la Moutarde is the classic rabbit dish.

I like Sichuan's Zigong 冷吃兔 (cold-eaten rabbit)! Fried rabbit, dried chillies and numbing Sichuan pepper. Unforgettable.

In oven with potatoes!

Confit or cassoulet.

rabbit stew