This recipe is absolutely delicious and a big hit with my family. If you are new to cooking with Quail, then this is a great recipe to try. The glaze itself is so quick to make and is also used to marinate the meat first. Such an easy recipe with great flavours. The butterflied Quail itself is cooked in under 20 minutes, so you’ll have dinner ready in no time!
This dish really is so quick and easy to make. As these Quail are butterflied and partially de-boned, they cook very quickly. Butterflied Quail cooks beautifully on a grill or outdoor barbeque or on a high heat in the oven. By cooking over a high heat, you get a lovely colour and char on the skin which gives great flavour without overcooking the meat.
The marinade/glaze for this recipe is very easy to make. Only 6 ingredients, all mixed together in a bowl and then massaged into the quail. At this point, you can either cook the quail straight away, or let it marinate for an hour or so in the fridge (I usually bring it out of the fridge 15 mins before cooking it).
The combination of orange, cumin and brown sugar is delicious and could be used on any poultry.
For this recipe, the quail is cooked in the oven on a high heat – 250°C (500°F) which enables the skin to colour up nicely without overcooking the meat. It’s cooked for 10 minutes, then taken out of the oven and basted with more of the marinade to glaze. At this stage, I like to rotate the tray when I put it back into the oven so all the quail brown as evenly as possible, as there are always hot spots in ovens.
I served the quail with roasted potato cubes and baby carrots but they would be delicious with a potato or carrot puree or even served with a grain salad or green salad.
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as we do. It really is an easy and delicious way to eat Quail. It is one of those dishes that would work well for a casual family dinner or for when you have friends over! Enjoy x
Equipment
- oven tray
- small bowl
Ingredients
- 8 quail butterflied (6-8 quail)
- 2 tbsp olive oil extra virgin
- 2 tbsp orange juice
- 2 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 garlic cloves peeled
- 1 tbsp cumin ground
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250°C (500°F). Line an oven tray with baking paper (saves on cleaning the glaze off later).
- For the Marinade: Add the extra virgin olive oil, orange juice, brown sugar, crushed garlic, cumin and sea salt to a small bowl and mix well with a small whisk or spoon to combine.
- Place the butterflied quails into a large glad bag or into a large lasagne dish and pour the marinade over them. Massage the marinade into the quail. This can be done by sealing the bag and massaging the outside of the bag or, use clean or gloved hands to massage the quail in the dish. At this stage, you can cook the quail straight away, or pop them into the refrigerator (cover the dish or place the glad bag onto a plate) for a few hours. I like to bring my quail out of the fridge and leave on the bench for 15 minutes to come to room temperature before cooking.
- When cooking, place the quail onto the oven tray so they are all flat and skin side down. Reserve the leftover marinade that is left in the bag for basting. Season the quail very lightly with extra salt(only lightly as there is salt in the marinade). Turn them over and season the skin side very lightly again.
- Place the tray into the preheated oven and cook for 10 minutes. At this stage, take them out of the oven and using a basting brush, baste the skin with the remainder of the marinade. When you put the tray back into the oven, rotate the tray so the quail can all cook as evenly as possible. Cook for a further 5-10 minutes until the skin is nicely coloured and the quail is cooked but still slightly pink (see notes). It only took 5 more minutes in my oven (ie total cook time was 15 mins).Rest the quail for 5 minutes before serving. Serve the quail hot or warm.
4 Comments
Dianne
July 2, 2021 at 7:21 amI hate starting off by saying I didn’t have this so I substituted that but this recipe is terrific. But- I had mango ? juice and no orange ? juice. It was a tad sweet when I tasted it so I added a few drops of Dijon. (Truly sorry for the change). I only had two little quails but used the same measurements for the marinade. They turned out so beautiful and good! I’ll order more quail next week and will have OJ on hand. Thanks for a good recipe. It was my first time preparing quail in years!
Katrina
July 3, 2021 at 2:09 pmThat’s great to hear Dianne. I’d love to know what you think when you make it next too. I am so happy to hear your quail turned out well too as not everyone is comfortable cooking it and yet it is so delicious. Thanks for your message. Katrina ?
Jenny
February 12, 2022 at 8:39 pmMade this and was great………only needed 10 minutes. Paired it with your Peaches and Rocket salad… wonderful!
Katrina
February 17, 2022 at 12:03 pmI’m so happy to hear you enjoyed this Jenny. Thank you for taking the time to let me know. Katrina x