Cooking features
- If you come across an unplucked bird, you will have to complete the task yourself. To lighten it, the carcass is doused with boiling water, then the feathers are pulled out. You can also remove them from the carcass along with the skin. Quail giblets are very small, so they are usually not cooked, but thrown away. The liver, heart and stomach can be fed to pets. If you do not have the skills to pluck and gut a bird, when purchasing, it is advisable to give preference to prepared carcasses, especially since quail are often sold in this form.
- When choosing a bird, pay attention to its color, smell, and elasticity. When pressing on the carcass with your finger, it should quickly return to its previous shape. The quail's skin color should be pink or white. Yellowish, bluish and greenish spots indicate that the product is spoiled. This is also indicated by a rotten or sour smell. If you suspect that the quail is not fresh, it is advisable to refrain from purchasing it.
- Quail can be stored in the refrigerator for a week, in the freezer - no more than 3 months.
- There are different breeds of quail. Egg breeds are the smallest, usually not exceeding 150 g in weight, and have little meat. For baking, they usually take birds of meat breeds weighing from 200 g. The largest and most popular in cooking are quails of broiler breeds, weighing 300-400 g.
- To make the quails more juicy and tender, they are marinated before cooking. Usually white wine, lemon juice, and soy sauce are used for this. You can also marinate the bird in sour cream or mayonnaise. Quails are usually kept in the marinade for a short time - about an hour.
- To prevent the quail from drying out when baking, it is often placed in foil or a cooking bag. Also, sour cream, mayonnaise and other fatty products that are used to cover the carcass before baking help prevent poultry meat from drying out.
- If you want the quails to brown, tear off the foil or cooking sleeve 15 minutes before they are ready.
Serve quail separately or with a side dish. It can be potatoes, buckwheat, or rice prepared in any way.
What kind of bird is this?
If you have never cooked quail before and think that this is some kind of exotic bird, from which preparing a good dish is not only difficult, but also expensive, we hasten to reassure you. Nowadays, the cost of quail carcasses is no more expensive than chicken carcasses, and anyone, even a novice cook, can prepare a delicious dish from them.
First of all, let’s say that a quail is a small bird that belongs to the genus of pheasants, order Galliformes. In a word, a quail is a small chicken.
Well-fed quail
Before moving on to the cooking recipes, we’ll tell you how these birds differ from the usual chickens and turkeys we are used to, traditionally bred on our farms and in households.
Currently, many breeds of this wonderful bird have been bred in different directions: egg, broiler and ornamental. Quail eggs have an excellent taste and, in addition, they are much healthier than chicken eggs. What can we say if quail products help remove radioactive substances from the body and were used to treat irradiated patients after the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Since we are now interested in quail meat dishes, we will need broiler carcasses. There are several of them and the weight of some representatives is more than 300 grams! Our poultry farms, of course, do not raise such record holders and usually sell carcasses in stores or markets that are about 20 cm long and weigh 150 g. Therefore, to prepare a good dish you need to buy 5-6 pieces of them.
Quails baked in foil
Compound:
- quail – 0.6 kg;
- apple – 0.2 kg;
- lemon juice – 10 ml;
- honey – 10 ml;
- refined vegetable oil – 10 ml;
- soy sauce – 10 ml;
- salt, seasonings for poultry - to taste;
- garlic – 2 cloves.
Cooking method:
- Grind the honey with a small amount of salt until it acquires a liquid consistency. Mix it with a teaspoon of lemon juice, oil and soy sauce. Using a special press, squeeze the garlic into the resulting mixture, add spices to it, and mix.
- Rinse and dry the plucked and gutted quail carcasses with a kitchen towel. Coat them with marinade inside and out. Leave in the refrigerator for an hour.
- Wash the apple, pat dry with a napkin, peel, and cut out the core of the fruit. Cut the apple pulp into small cubes and sprinkle with the remaining lemon juice to prevent them from darkening.
- Place the apples inside the quails. Wrap each carcass in a sheet of foil and place on a baking sheet.
- Preheat the oven to 190 degrees, place a baking sheet with quails in it. 30 minutes after the start of cooking, tear the foil and continue baking the quail for another 15 minutes.
When serving quail, you can garnish it with lemon and apple slices and sprigs of herbs. Potatoes and rice are suitable as a side dish.
Quail baked in a sleeve
Compound:
- quail – 0.6 kg;
- olive oil – 40 ml;
- lemon juice – 40 ml;
- salt, cumin, pepper mixture - to taste;
- boiled water – 80 ml.
Cooking method:
- Rub the prepared quail carcasses on all sides with a mixture of salt, pepper and cumin.
- Mix the oil with lemon juice, coat the bird carcasses with the resulting mixture, and place them in a cooking sleeve. Secure its edges with special clips or simply tie it. Place in the refrigerator for an hour.
- After the specified time, untie the bag on one side, add water to it, and tie it again.
- Place the quail sleeve on a baking sheet. Pierce it in several places with a toothpick - the holes are needed for steam to escape.
- Place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 200 degrees and cook the quail for 40 minutes.
According to this recipe, the quails are soft, tender and very juicy. Almost any side dish will go with them.
Meat preparation
First, the quail meat needs to be prepared. To do this, you need to cool the quail carcasses in the refrigerator an hour before cooking, then rinse them under running water and dry them with a napkin inside and out.
The meat is somewhat dry, so it is recommended to keep it in a specially prepared marinade before cooking. This marinade recipe for quail is quite simple, but its use will make the meat juicy and tender:
- onion;
- a little wine or kefir;
- thyme;
- pepper.
Marinate the meat for several hours. This is the base of the marinade; you can add your own ingredients if desired. Before stewing or frying, you need to tie the quail's legs with chef's thread.
Quails baked with potatoes
Compound:
- quail – 1 kg;
- potatoes – 0.75 kg;
- bacon – 150-200 g;
- onions – 0.35 kg;
- refined vegetable oil – 60 ml;
- dry white wine – 40 ml;
- butter – 100 g;
- salt, a mixture of peppers, Provençal herbs - to taste.
Cooking method:
- Rub the quails with a mixture of salt, pepper, and Provençal herbs.
- Mix the wine with two tablespoons of butter and cover the bird with this mixture. Place the quail in the refrigerator for 30-60 minutes.
- Wash the potatoes, peel them, cut them into round slices, mix with the remaining oil, salt and pepper.
- Place the potatoes in a baking dish and place the thinly sliced bacon on top.
- Melt the butter and pour it over the quail carcasses. Cut them across the chest and spread them out. Place on potatoes.
- Cover the pan with foil and place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. After 20 minutes, remove the foil, after another 10 minutes, turn the carcasses over and pour melted butter over them. Continue cooking for another 15-20 minutes.
Quails prepared according to this recipe are served with potatoes and bacon, with which they were baked. The snack does not require any other additions.
How to choose and store correctly
But before you use one of the recipes, it is worth learning about all the intricacies of purchasing (for those who were unlucky on the hunt), storing and preparing quail. When choosing chilled carcasses, it is necessary to assess the condition of the meat. In fresh carcasses it is light pink and elastic. When pressed, the fillet very quickly returns to its original shape.
If a frozen bird weighs suspiciously a lot, then most likely the producers played a trick and pumped the carcass with water. During cooking, this will cause excess moisture to appear and the finished meat will be too watery. This is another argument in favor of self-harvested birds.
If possible, you need to sniff the quail well. At the same time, you can catch a very subtle aroma reminiscent of chicken. This indicates the unconditional freshness of the meat and high quality.
You can store chilled quail in the refrigerator for no more than one week. In the freezer, this period can be extended to several months.
Quails baked in sour cream
Compound:
- quail – 0.5 kg;
- sour cream – 100 ml;
- garlic – 2 cloves;
- butter – 20 g;
- water – 100 ml;
- salt, pepper - to taste;
- lemon – 1 pc.
Cooking method:
- After plucking and gutting the quail carcasses, rinse and dry with a towel. Rub with a mixture of salt and pepper.
- Squeeze the juice out of the lemon, pour it over the quail, leave for 30-60 minutes.
- Crush the garlic with a special press and mix with sour cream. Coat the quails thickly with it and leave for another half hour.
- Grease a baking dish with butter and pour water into it. Place the quail on its side.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, place the form with quails in it.
- After 20 minutes, turn the quails over and continue baking for the same amount of time.
Quails baked in sour cream. turn out tender, juicy and rosy. They can become a decoration for the holiday table.
Quail baked in soy sauce
Compound:
- quail – 0.8-1 kg;
- soy sauce – 100-120 ml;
- refined vegetable oil - how much will be needed;
- potatoes – 0.8-1 kg;
- salt, ground black pepper - to taste;
- sesame seeds – 20 g.
Cooking method:
- Rub the quail carcasses with pepper, pour over soy sauce, and leave to marinate in a cool place for an hour.
- Grease a baking dish with vegetable oil. Place quail in it. Sprinkle them with sesame seeds.
- Cover the pan with foil and place in an oven preheated to 180 degrees. After half an hour, remove the foil, turn the quails over, and bake them for another 15 minutes.
- Grate the potatoes using a grater designed for making Korean salads, add salt and pepper.
- Fry the potatoes in a large amount of boiling oil, placing them in small portions.
- Place the potatoes on a napkin to absorb excess fat.
Royal baked quails in the oven
You will need:
- quail – 4 carcasses,
- chicken liver – 200 g,
- bacon - 4 slices
- onions – 2 pcs.,
- sour apple – 1 pc.
- flour – 1 tbsp. l.,
- olive oil – 1 tbsp. l.,
- soy sauce – 1 tbsp. l.,
- paprika – 1 tsp,
- honey – 1 tsp,
- vegetable oil,
- ground black pepper - to taste,
- salt - to taste.
Cooking method
- Mix olive oil, soy sauce, paprika and honey.
- Pour the prepared sauce over the prepared quail carcasses. Place in a cool place to marinate for 40 minutes.
- Cut the chicken liver into cubes.
- Wash the apple. Remove the seeds. Cut into rings.
- Heat a small amount of vegetable oil and fry the chicken liver in it.
- Add apple, salt and pepper. Fry for another 5 minutes.
- Stuff pickled quails with chicken liver, apples and spices. Wrap in bacon slices.
- Place the quails, breast side up, on a baking sheet lined with food foil.
- Bake the game for an hour at 180 degrees. If you want the quail to be covered with an appetizing crust, then open the foil 15 minutes before the end of cooking.
- Serve the finished quails with boiled potatoes and fried onions. Let's try!
The benefits of quail meat
Quail meat contains substances that give the dish a specific taste; they increase the formation of gastric juice and significantly increase appetite. This meat is highly digestible, contains little cholesterol, and also boasts a large amount of potassium, which fights arrhythmia and significantly improves brain function. Due to the presence of phosphorus and sulfur in quail meat, you can maintain a good metabolism, but it also contains other substances that will benefit the human body.
Despite the fact that quail meat is a dietary product and its calorie content is low, it is superior to rabbit and chicken meat in its nutritional properties and amazing taste. Its regular use helps strengthen blood vessels, helps in the treatment of the respiratory system and gastrointestinal diseases, and improves immunity.
It is quite rich in vitamin composition and contains PP (nicotinic acid), which ensures blood microcirculation, B1 and B2, which strengthens the nervous system, vitamin A, which supports vision and vitamin D, which effectively prevents the development of rickets.
