My sons first quail hunt and we cleaned up on blues. Need some good recipe options to try out.

Look up my recipe and pictures on my fried quail thread.

Grill with garlic and melted butter.

Flour and fry with gravy. You can make rice but I prefer my gravy over white bread. If there's anyone around that answers to Momma, Nana, or Mimi let them worry about cooking it.

I tried to pan fry quail for several years. The breast never came out right because they have three slices, and the bones prohibited the flour from properly coating. A friend and I had an 840 quail year, so I had more than I knew what to do with them. I taught myself to butterfly the quail. I've show this to lots of people since, and it's the only way they cook their quail anymore.

The first and most important step is to cut off the ball and socket joints like this;




Next you run your scissors under the rib cage on each side.



Then you clip off the sternum.




Pull the bones over the front of the quail breast, and it's a done deal.




You have a butterflied quail breast which will pan fry in less than 3 minutes on each side. Use your pan drippings for cream gravy. You don't have to use an egg wash if you bread them 30 minutes or so before you fry them. The breading will get gummy, and they'll come out crisp.

I've deep fried them for a field trial crowd, but I serve those with french fries and store bought breaded okra.

I bet you could do dove the same way! Thanks for posting Bill!

The pulley bone comes out cleaner on dove. It's a little difficult to get the sternum and pulley bone out of quail. I also take the femur or thigh bone out of the quail legs. Some people prefer the quail legs over the breast.

Scroll to the bottom. Several great quail recipes

http://honest-food.net/wild-game/pheasant-quail-partridge-chukar-recipes/

I have a buddy that works for a quail farm. They sell processed quail to restaurants and meat markets etc. Their breasts look like that last pic bill, and they fry wonderfully.

Thanks for the info and keep it coming, gonna try some out this weekend.

what technique do you use for the legs? sometimes i pull the meat to one end and cut around the bone, then pull meat to other end and cut around that end of leg bone and meat comes off inside out.

I also clean up the legs, keep them both together, I like the flavor of the legs.

I just take the thigh bone out. It's easy to figure out. The bone will snip right out. I start at the top.

I prefer to deep fry and that way I do not loose all the meat Bill does making yuppi quail

stick....fire......foood

You'll leave more meat on the bones by trying to ear around them.

You have not seen this bone sucker

He may regret that one

I debone the breasts and separate each leg bone-in. Season with S&P, sautee in butter or oil of choice. Remove quail, add flower (half cup or so)and stir continuously for a few minutes. Then I add the quail back in with a half cup to a cup of white wine and 8-16 ounces of better than boullion (beef) and simmer for a half hour or so. I sometimes add mushrooms the last 10 minutes.

Serve over wild rice with biscuits. Can't beat it.

^^^ sounds great minus the wild rice.