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Jon Keeley

Rabbit pie
S29E8 American · 2022
Where to find them
● @chefjonkeeley

Rabbit is not a competitive television protein. It is the protein of the chef who learned to cook in a small kitchen in a small town where rabbit was what was around. It is lean. It is fussy. It cooks in about a third of the time of chicken and dries out in about half the time.

Jon Keeley runs Fire Restaurant and Lounge in Denver. He picked rabbit pie — which is a British-Continental dish of braised rabbit, root vegetables, a roux-thickened gravy, and a top-crust pastry sealed to the rim of the dish. The pie traps the moisture. The pastry tells you whether the chef knows their oven.

Bobby brought a pie. Keeley brought a rabbit pie that, per the room, tasted like the dish has tasted for three hundred years.

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Rabbit pie

30 min Prep
90 min Cook
4 Serves
Ingredients
  • 1 whole rabbit (2.5-3 lbs), cut into 8 pieces
  • 2 cups rabbit or chicken stock
  • 1 cup dry white wine
  • 4 oz pancetta, diced
  • 2 medium carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 8 oz pearl onions, peeled
  • 6 oz cremini mushrooms, halved
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1.5 tbsp all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 lb all-butter pie dough, chilled
  • 1 egg yolk, beaten
  • Sea salt and cracked black pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Pat rabbit pieces dry and season generously with salt and pepper. Render pancetta in a large Dutch oven over medium heat for 3 minutes until fat releases. Remove pancetta with slotted spoon and reserve. Increase heat to medium-high, working in batches, sear rabbit pieces 3-4 minutes per side until golden brown. Remove and set aside.
  2. In the same pot, melt 1 tbsp butter. Add carrots, pearl onions, and mushrooms. Sauté 4 minutes until lightly colored. Sprinkle 1.5 tbsp flour over vegetables and stir constantly for 1 minute to coat. Pour in wine, scraping up browned bits, then add stock, thyme, bay leaf, mustard, and reserved pancetta.
  3. Return rabbit pieces to pot, nestling them into vegetables. Bring to simmer, cover partially, and braise at 325°F for 45 minutes until rabbit is tender and meat pulls from bone easily. Remove from heat and let cool 15 minutes. Pick meat from bones, discard bones, and return meat to sauce. Season with salt and pepper.
  4. Transfer filling to a 9-inch pie dish, mounding slightly higher in center. Dot with remaining 1 tbsp butter. Remove pie dough from refrigerator 10 minutes to warm slightly for easier handling.
  5. Roll chilled dough to ⅛-inch thickness. Lay over filling, crimp edges firmly to seal, and cut 4 vents in crown. Brush with egg yolk wash. Chill assembled pie 15 minutes.
  6. Preheat oven to 400°F. Bake pie on lower oven rack for 35-40 minutes until crust is deep golden brown and filling bubbles at vents. If crust browns too quickly, tent loosely with foil after 20 minutes.
  7. Remove from oven and rest 8 minutes before serving. This allows filling to set slightly for clean slices while maintaining a creamy interior.
Inspired by Jon Keeley’s winning rabbit pie. This is a plausible recreation, not the chef’s original recipe.
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