Quail - Grilled

Here’s a dish some would call exotic, but Quail is easier to find than you think. Quail is very flavorful, and a marinade only enhances all the flavor the meat brings you. Add some saucy rice and grilled Romaine lettuce topped with Parmesan, and you have an inexpensive yet very “fancy” dinner before you.

You can sub Cornish Hen for the Quail if you like…..but cook times are longer.


Grilled Quail

Ingredients

4-6 Quails, cleaned

1/2 Green Bell Pepper
1/2 Yellow Bell Pepper
1/2 Red Bell Pepper
1/4 cup chopped Leeks
3 Tbsp Soy Sauce
3 Tbsp Teriyaki Sauce
3 Tbsp Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 cup White Wine
1/2 cup Chicken Broth
1 tsp fresh grated Ginger
1 tsp minced Garlic

2-3 cups cooked rice (or noodles), kept warm

Procedure

Combine all ingredients except Quail in a large bowl and mix well. Add Quail to a large zip-lock bag and pour the mixture over them. Seal tightly and squeeze out excess air. Allow to marinate 2-4 hours.

After marinating, remove Quail and put liquid in a pot and heat. You want to reduce the sauce by 1/4 and make the vegetables tender. About 15 – 20 minutes. Once reduced and veggies are tender, cover and reserve.

Fire up grill. Over medium coals or low gas, grill the Quail 8-10 minutes per side.

After grilling, cover and allow Quail to rest for 5 minutes. Split in half if desired before serving.

Plate Quall with rice or noodles, and spoon reduced marinade over the rice/noodles and Quail. Grilled Romaine lettuce topped with Parmesan goes great with this! You can also serve steamed Broccoli and cheese for a sure fire hit.

Pictures

You're killing me Keltin!!! I know I shouldn't open these so early in the morning.........now I'm hungry. lol I just may have to try this, never had quail. Great pics also!!

dayyyummm

almost 5am right here and i feel like heading to store and firing up the grill already..lol

Those look good. I would probably try to put a bit more colour on them myself.

Your little rockettes look awesome Keltin!!!!

I’m gonna have to agree with you Miniman.

This was actually the first time I ever cooked Quail, and all recipes said 5-6 minutes per side, and that Quail is easy to overcook.

We were cleaning the freezer yesterday trying to get at a 9lb Boston Butt, and came across the Quail. So I decided to cook them on a whim.

DW wouldn’t eat them! She just couldn’t wrap her head around the idea. There are lots of “cute” things she won’t eat.

So I ate one and put the rest in a large bowl with the leftover sauce. They basically marinated in the sauce all night.

I then heated them up on the grill for lunch today. A friend came over and helped me eat them. I have to say, I liked the flavor even more today than last night. The color was better, and the flavor of the sauce that I came up with really permeated the meat. Overall, very yummy.

The legs didn’t hold up very well, and the tips pretty much burned off. I imagine you could wrap the tips in foil to avoid that, but there isn’t any meat at the tip, so I didn’t really care. The thigh meat was a little dry, but still very good. The breast was firmer than last night, but again, very good.

If you like more color to your birds, and don’t mind burning the leg tips off and possibly dry leg meat, I’d suggest increasing the cooking time. Also, flipping them so that backbone side is down and wedged on the grates is a good idea and makes cooking them a bit easier. So about 6 minutes per side (12 minutes) then flip them onto their backs for another 6 minutes (18 minutes) and then flip them breast down for 4 minutes (22 minutes)

I’ll make this again, but hopefully in a smaller batch since I’ll also be cooking DW a pork chop or something!

it looks good although i'v never had quail, what's it taste like?

It's been so long since I've had quail. This makes me hungry for it now.

Great Job Keltin. I will have Quail on the brain till I try it now. Nice Pictures, and step by step process.
Thanks.

I have to order quail around here. There are a couple French recipes I want to try, but every recipe calls for the quail to be butterflied. Is there a reason you left the carcass in tact?

I left it in tact because I thought it was cool!

Plus, they are really, really small. I figured with them in tact, all the bones would diffuse the heat better and keep the meat from drying out. I did end up butter flying them for serving the second day though.

The meat has a darker taste than chicken. Kind of like Cornish Hen, but darker. Not really gamey, but “darker” in the same way that lamb tastes a bit “darker” than beef.