RCBaughn
TVWBB Super Fan
Well, I didn't take pictures again since I had raw quail all over me for most of the prep, but I did get a picture before the birds got eaten and thought I'd show them to y'all.
I deboned the bird mostly all but the wings and legs and used a shrimp stuffing. I got the recipe from here - Year of Alabama Food This recipe is awesome and I used the filling in a chicken ballontine I did last night. It makes a WHOLE lot of stuffing so plan on using it for other meals or either cut the ingredients in half. I can see this stuffing freezing well though, so I'd make it and save it for later that way since it is so tasty. The onlu change I made was to lightly sauté the shrimp before adding it to the filling. I didn't want straight raw shrimp in there since I planned on cooking the quail to a lower internal temp, around 145 and let it rise to around 150 while tented. I also changed the bacon wrapping to prosciutto since it crisps up faster than bacon and also just because I had an opened pack that needed using. It was a good choice, prosciutto is better to me than bacon usually but the stuff is so damn hard to work with. It tears so easily and is hard to separate into whole slices no doubt. About half the quail I ended up having to use toothpicks. With all the toothpicks I ended up using, along with the skewers the poor things looked a bit like a pincushion! LOL.
I also didn't tie the birds at all. I just used toothpicks to stab the legs together at the end, and I used two skewers per bird and ran each through a thigh and one side of the breast making as X pattern. It works great at keeping the stuffing in and keeping them holding their shape through the cook and was easy to move them around on the grill without losing much stuffing through the bottom. Super easy to remove as well, they just slid right out without tearing the prosciutto or leaking any juices from the meat.
I cooked them on the Performer with Royal Oak and Applewood chips for some smoke, and I'm almost ashamed to say that I cooked them the whole time on tin foil..... Not using the grates was probably a bad call for looks since they were just kind of evenly browned and didn't have grill marks, but since I have never cooked quail I didn't want to dry them out at all. I also didn't want to lose any juices or stuffing incase they came unrolled. Oh, and if you do grill quail wrap the tips of the legs in tin foil. Mine got a little dark but the meat wasn't overcooked thank goodness.
I really wanted to be able to say I liked quail and not have it turn out like the squab I cooked..... Pigeon for those who haven't heard it called squab before. I sure hadn't and had to look it up. That said, quail is freaking awesome. It is fairly mild in flavor and not as gamey as I wished, but it certainly has more flavor than most chicken I've had. I would recommend if you haven't tried it, so out and find some frozen and give them a go! They are a bit hard to work with and debone since they are so small, but you can buy them already glove-boned if you can find them. Deboning was part of the fun to me and it helped me learn new ways to use my knife and practice my meat prep since they are lacking in skill, but I'll stop rambling and post up the lone picture I made. We had mashed potatoes and grilled corn on the cob to go with it. Next time, I am going the cheese grits route since it will match that shrimp filling perfectly and provide a great spot to place the chickens on the plate. Can't beat that creole thing with game birds honestly.
I deboned the bird mostly all but the wings and legs and used a shrimp stuffing. I got the recipe from here - Year of Alabama Food This recipe is awesome and I used the filling in a chicken ballontine I did last night. It makes a WHOLE lot of stuffing so plan on using it for other meals or either cut the ingredients in half. I can see this stuffing freezing well though, so I'd make it and save it for later that way since it is so tasty. The onlu change I made was to lightly sauté the shrimp before adding it to the filling. I didn't want straight raw shrimp in there since I planned on cooking the quail to a lower internal temp, around 145 and let it rise to around 150 while tented. I also changed the bacon wrapping to prosciutto since it crisps up faster than bacon and also just because I had an opened pack that needed using. It was a good choice, prosciutto is better to me than bacon usually but the stuff is so damn hard to work with. It tears so easily and is hard to separate into whole slices no doubt. About half the quail I ended up having to use toothpicks. With all the toothpicks I ended up using, along with the skewers the poor things looked a bit like a pincushion! LOL.
I also didn't tie the birds at all. I just used toothpicks to stab the legs together at the end, and I used two skewers per bird and ran each through a thigh and one side of the breast making as X pattern. It works great at keeping the stuffing in and keeping them holding their shape through the cook and was easy to move them around on the grill without losing much stuffing through the bottom. Super easy to remove as well, they just slid right out without tearing the prosciutto or leaking any juices from the meat.
I cooked them on the Performer with Royal Oak and Applewood chips for some smoke, and I'm almost ashamed to say that I cooked them the whole time on tin foil..... Not using the grates was probably a bad call for looks since they were just kind of evenly browned and didn't have grill marks, but since I have never cooked quail I didn't want to dry them out at all. I also didn't want to lose any juices or stuffing incase they came unrolled. Oh, and if you do grill quail wrap the tips of the legs in tin foil. Mine got a little dark but the meat wasn't overcooked thank goodness.
I really wanted to be able to say I liked quail and not have it turn out like the squab I cooked..... Pigeon for those who haven't heard it called squab before. I sure hadn't and had to look it up. That said, quail is freaking awesome. It is fairly mild in flavor and not as gamey as I wished, but it certainly has more flavor than most chicken I've had. I would recommend if you haven't tried it, so out and find some frozen and give them a go! They are a bit hard to work with and debone since they are so small, but you can buy them already glove-boned if you can find them. Deboning was part of the fun to me and it helped me learn new ways to use my knife and practice my meat prep since they are lacking in skill, but I'll stop rambling and post up the lone picture I made. We had mashed potatoes and grilled corn on the cob to go with it. Next time, I am going the cheese grits route since it will match that shrimp filling perfectly and provide a great spot to place the chickens on the plate. Can't beat that creole thing with game birds honestly.
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