Spiced Fried Quail

Spiced Fried Quail came about by my husband and best dog’s many hunting trips for these small little birds. My husband would come home with a few and I always hated every preparation we even did of them until we tried doing this method.

I’ll be the first to admit quail is not my favorite bird to eat. My husband is an avid hunter who brings home lots of game. My favorite is duck, my least favorite is quail. In a restaurant I love to eat quail. They are able to buy the birds already semi boneless which makes them not only easier to cook, but easier to eat. At home the de-boning process of such a small bird is daunting. I’ve tried stuffing them, butterflying them and marinating them. I just have never found a way to enjoy them, until a guide my husband had gone quail hunting with mentioned frying them. I couldn’t believe I hadn’t thought of it before.

I made it after letting the birds marinate in a spice rub, and treating them very much like I do my fried chicken and I couldn’t believe the end result. Not only did I eat the quail, but I actually really liked it. It wasn’t overcooked or dry, and it had tons of flavor because of the spice mixture I marinated the raw meat in.

Now while this works well with whole butterflied wild quail, it also works great with store bought or farm raised quail as well. You just butterfly the quail much like you do with a chicken by cutting out the back bone and putting a sharp knife in the breast bone to crack it. I like to let the quail sit with the spice mixture overnight. This really lets those flavors meld into the meat. The birds get soaked in buttermilk before tossing them in a cornmeal and flour mixture. I fry them up in peanut oil, then allow them to cool on a wire rack set in the oven to keep them warm while I work on the next batch. If you, like me, struggle with eating wild quail at home, give this method a try, I bet you will be surprised. We eat it casually with our hands and with cold dark amber beers to go around.