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Smoked Quail - The Recipe

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Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Course Appetizer, Main Course
Servings 2 people
Calories 760 kcal

Equipment

  • Smoker
  • Wood Chips
  • Meat thermometer
  • Bowl
  • Foil
  • Baking pan
  • Kitchen shears
  • Non-stick cooking spray
  • Aluminum foil

Ingredients
  

Buttermilk brine

  • ½ gallon water
  • ½ gallon gallon buttermilk
  • 1 cup kosher salt
  • ½ cup brown sugar or maple syrup

Barbecue sauce

  • ½ onion grated
  • 2 teaspoons ground hot chilies
  • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter or lard
  • 2 tequila shots
  • ½ cup honey
  • ¼ cup cider vinegar
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon chopped sage
  • Salt

Quail

  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 4 quail remove backbones and flatten

You can skip the process of making the barbecue sauce if you already have a barbecue sauce or rub that you prefer like the popular smoked quail Traeger.

    Instructions
     

    • Make the buttermilk smoked quail brine.
      Combine the water and the buttermilk in a bowl then add the kosher salt. For every ½ gallon of brine, add ½ cup kosher salt. Add the brown sugar or maple syrup for sweetness. The brine should be enough liquid to submerge the quail.
    • Prepare the sauce.
      Heat a pan over medium-hot heat then add the butter or lard and heat through. Add the grated onions and saute for 3 minutes until they turn translucent. Add all the other sauce ingredients and stir well. Let the ingredients simmer slowly for 30 minutes or more. If you don’t like a chunky sauce, remove the sauce from the heat and pour it into a blender to puree it.
    • Flatten the quail.
      Use the kitchen shears to remove the quail’s backbones. Cut along either side of the quail’s spine then place it on a cutting board breast-side up. Press the breast to flatten the quail. You can also snap out the ribs and curved saber bones near the wishbone.
    • Brine the quail.
      Place the quail in a large bowl or zip-lock bag then pour the brine mixture over it. Cover the bowl or seal the ziplock bag and put it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
    • Set up the smoker.
      If you have an electric smoker, heat it up to 225 degrees F. If you have a charcoal smoker, place coals in it and light them up. Let the coals burn until they are white-hot at a temperature between 200 and 250 degrees Fahrenheit. You can add wood chips to the smoker. Hickory and mesquite go perfectly well with quail’s flavor.
    • Prepare the baking pan.
      Line the baking pan with foil and spray it with non-stick cooking spray. Remove the quail from the refrigerator and rinse it under cool water to remove the excess brine. Rub vegetable oil all over the quail then lay it on the smoker pan in one layer.
    • Place the quail in the smoker.
      Put the quail in the smoker and cook it for about 1 ½ hour, until its temperature reaches the recommended smoked quail temperature which is 165 degrees Fahrenheit. After one hour, use the meat thermometer to check if it is cooked. In the last 30 minutes of smoking the quail, remove it and place it on a cool surface. Baste the barbecue sauce all over it then return it to the smoker to finish cooking.
    • Serve.
      Remove the quail from the smoker and cover it with aluminum foil. Let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.

    Notes

    When smoking quail, the legs tend to cook faster than the other meatier sections. You can do the bacon-wrapped smoked quail trick, where you wrap the legs with bacon to slow the cooking. The bacon will add delicious flavors to the quail.
    Alternatively, you can wrap the quail’s legs with foil. Use high-quality aluminum foil like the popular Amazon basics Aluminum foil. It is certified kosher and is large enough for all of your cooking needs including lining baking sheets, creating foil packets for keeping food moist while cooking, and storing leftovers.

    Nutrition

    Calories: 760kcal