I've killed and eaten several thousand cottontail rabbits in my life. They are good fried, scalloped or in a casserole. They don't taste like chicken, they're better. Wild cottontails taste alot different than pen raised domestic. The wild ones are much more flavorful and better than pen raised by far. I'd need to be pretty desperate and hungry to eat another pen raised rabbit.
I chicken fry them but they are usually tough, even if i cook the hind qs in a pot of pinto beans. I have some cooking now with onion, celery and deer heart.
Gotta shoot young of the year if you're gonna fry em and not be tough. Older rabbits are best slow/moist cooked to tenderize. My wife makes a delicious scalloped rabbit. Not sure what all she puts in it but she boils it till tender first and saves the stock. Then picks the tender meat off the bones and mixes it into a casserole dish with croutons, broken up saltines and some spices. She then pours some of the stock over the meat/crouton/saltines mixture and bakes it in the oven. While it's cooking she makes a gravy from the rest of the stock and some chicken boulion and cooks some potatoes. When it's all done you spoon the scalloped rabbit over a bed of mashed taters add gravy over the top and enjoy.
Hey, i forgot. About Christmas iirc i boiled 2 rabbits rears and saddles along with 2 duck breasts with the fat skin on and when tender i took the meat off the bone. I used the stock to moisten the dressing mix pakage and 2 pies of cornbread. I mixed in creame of celery and cream of mushroom and added chopped little onions with the green tops and chopped celery.
Then i poured in a foil baking tray and added the critter meat. Popped it in the oven. Man, you talk about good.
My mom used to do that using either ducks or squirrels. Unreal good. I wish i had your wifes casserole recipe.
