Baby Quail Recipes

If you are looking for a great way to cook small birds, braised quail is hard to beat. Because they are white meat, they don’t suffer from long, slow cooking like, say, ducks. And this Greek style recipe really makes the little birds shine.

The beauty of Greek food is how skilled that country’s cooks are with relatively limited ingredients. Much of Greece is hard to farm, hot and rocky, but the limitations created by that have made the food more imaginative.

Quail are hunted in Greece, and play a role in that nation’s cuisine. I cobbled together this rendition of braised quail from my library of Greek cookbooks. One I highly recommend is Diane Kochilas’ The Glorious Foods of Greece.

Roast Quail Wrapped In Pancetta And Vine Leaves With Grape Confit

Nothing in this recipe is hard to find — even the quail. You can now buy quail in most supermarkets if you look in the freezer section. I used Mearns quail Holly and I hunted in Arizona.

A great aspect of my braised quail recipe is that unlike most of my quail recipes, this one doesn’t require plucked quail. Skinned is fine, which is great for hunters; quail are notoriously hard to pluck.

Use extra-virgin olive oil, Greek if you can find it. Use garlic you peel yourself. Lemons you zest yourself. Fresh parsley you chopped, and black pepper you ground. And ideally, your own stash of pickled artichokes, but I’ll totally forgive you for not having that one lying around; it’s a California thing.

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I like a spoonful of little capers in there, but that’s up to you. I think it adds a nice salty bite. Oh, and use jarred Kalamata black olives if at all possible. Please don’t use those weird, canned Lindsay olives. Ew.

Use a dry white wine you would want to drink. In a perfect world, you’d find a Greek Assyrtiko, but any crisp, dry white will work. Pinot grigio, unoaked chardonnay, Sancerre, Chablis or Albarino are other good options. If you are a beer drinker, pilsner is the way to go here.

This is an easy, one-pot recipe that has most of the celebrated ingredients of Greece in it. All are easily found in most supermarkets. The quail are often sold in supermarket freezer sections if you are not a hunter.

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As I note in the recipe, wild quail will likely take 90 minutes to get tender. If you are using the alternatives, pheasants, grouse and partridges can take 2 hours, and rarely more than that, to get tender. If you are using these, don’t add the olives or artichokes until then, or they’ll disintegrate. 

Calories: 625 kcal | Carbohydrates: 16 g | Protein: 24 g | Fat: 48 g | Saturated Fat: 8 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 24 g | Cholesterol: 83 mg | Sodium: 1791 mg | Potassium: 490 mg | Fiber: 6 g | Sugar: 4 g | Vitamin A: 1858 IU | Vitamin C: 34 mg | Calcium: 133 mg | Iron: 6 mg

This is a traditional Greek lamb shank recipe done with venison shanks; the only difference between the two is venison takes longer to cook.

Quails' Eggs On Rye

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

©2023 Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. All rights reserved. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy Policy • Powered by CultivateWP.

As I note in the recipe, wild quail will likely take 90 minutes to get tender. If you are using the alternatives, pheasants, grouse and partridges can take 2 hours, and rarely more than that, to get tender. If you are using these, don’t add the olives or artichokes until then, or they’ll disintegrate. 

Calories: 625 kcal | Carbohydrates: 16 g | Protein: 24 g | Fat: 48 g | Saturated Fat: 8 g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6 g | Monounsaturated Fat: 24 g | Cholesterol: 83 mg | Sodium: 1791 mg | Potassium: 490 mg | Fiber: 6 g | Sugar: 4 g | Vitamin A: 1858 IU | Vitamin C: 34 mg | Calcium: 133 mg | Iron: 6 mg

This is a traditional Greek lamb shank recipe done with venison shanks; the only difference between the two is venison takes longer to cook.

Quails' Eggs On Rye

Hey there. Welcome to Hunter Angler Gardener Cook, the internet’s largest source of recipes and know-how for wild foods. I am a chef, author, and yes, hunter, angler, gardener, forager and cook. Follow me on Instagram and on Facebook.

©2023 Hunter Angler Gardener Cook. All rights reserved. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Privacy Policy • Powered by CultivateWP.