Rabbit Chili
1 whole rabbit - cut up
1 28 oz can tomato sauce
1 28 oz can diced tomatoes
1 14-1/2 oz can diced tomatoes with chiles
1 15 oz can sweet peas
1 15 oz can black beans
1 15-1/2 oz can whole kernel yellow and white corn
1 cup red cooking wine
1 cup (8 oz) beef stock
1/2 large onion
salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cumin to taste
Start by cutting your whole rabbit into chunks. I ended up with four legs, the flank meat, the ribs, and the lower spine (8 pieces total). Add these pieces to a large stock pot, and add water to cover the rabbit by at least an inch. Bring to a boil and let it simmer until the meat is "fork tender" and literally falls off the bone.
Once the rabbit is boiled to this point, remove the rabbit and set it aside to cool. Wash the stock pot and start with the chili ingredients.
Put all three cans of tomatoes into the pot. Add in the wine and beef stock, and start it cooking over a medium heat. When your rabbit is cool enough to touch, pull the meat off the bones. Discard the bones, and add the meat into the tomato mix in the pot. This is the most time consuming part of the process, but it's worth it to be thorough.
Drain the vegetables and be sure to rinse the black beans well (in cold water) before adding them to the pot. Stir the vegetables into the tomato mix. Cut up your onion and add that to the mix too.
Add salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder to your desired levels. I used a lot of salt and garlic, and less pepper and cumin.
Leave it to simmer for at least 30 minutes, uncovered. It will thicken up.
We let ours cook for about an hour to gain the consistency we wanted, and to allow for Tony to get home from work to eat with us. It was a hit. The kids who don't like spicy things liked it, and my husband who loves spicy, just added chili powder to his bowl and took seconds! Not bad! One of our picky eaters even asked if we could make it again. Another recipe to repeat.
My only complaint - next time we should double the recipe. It's supposed to feed 6-8 people, and our family of seven polished it off in one sitting. If I want left overs, I'll have to double the recipe.
You can find the original recipe here.