Bang Bang Ji Rabbit

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Jeff Benda

Contributor at Harvesting Nature

Cooking gives me a creative outlet to transform wild game and bring it into traditional recipes from around the world to help expand people's perceptions.My goal is to celebrate local fish and wild game and provide achievable, bright recipes designed to build confidence for new cooks, and inspire everyone to elevate their cooking.

I hope that by sharing and celebrating the food I create with the fish and wild game I harvest, I can highlight the great contribution so many hunters and anglers have made to conservation in this country, and reflect the freedom we have to enjoy America's great outdoors.

Latest posts by Jeff Benda (see all)

• Puddler Duck & Portabella Mushroom Ravioli - May 15, 2023
• Smothered Black Bear Chops - April 17, 2023
• Irish-American Fish Pie - March 13, 2023

I am always confident in harvesting a cottontail rabbit or two in the small patch of trees at my in-laws farm in southwestern Minnesota. So I invited my brother-in-law to join me on a brief hunt in the -5 degrees on a cold January afternoon. In less than a minute, we had a couple bunnies up and running. I made a successful clean head shot using a 70 year old open sight .22 rifle that my dad used to shoot rabbits with at his childhood farm in Nebraska.

Bang bang chicken appears on many Chinese restaurant menus in the West. The name comes from the pounding of the chicken used in this recipe and sold by street vendors in Sichuan. My version uses cottontail rabbit and doesn’t go to such lengths, but the distinctive flavors remain.

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Ingredients:
4 to 5 ounces boneless rabbit meat from the hind legs cut in strips
half a cucumber, sliced thin
2 baby carrots, sliced thin

Sauce Ingredients:
2 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp tahini
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sesame oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 teaspoon sesame seeds
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon chili flakes
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Preparation:
1. Whisk together sauce in bowl and set aside
2. Place rabbit meat in bottom of pot and add 1 Tbsp salt & enough water to cover with 1-inch water
3. Bring water with rabbit to boil, reduce to simmer for 5 minutes, remove from heat and let meat sit in water for another 5 minutes. Remove meat from water and let cool
4. While rabbit is cooking, slice cucumber and carrot and arrange on plate.
5. Right before serving, top cucumber & carrot with shredded rabbit and pour sauce on top
6. Optional garnish – green onions and peanuts