Stuffed Quail for The Holidays: Individual Birds for Individual Tastes/Needs

You can go big for the holidays with turkey and goose, but sometimes smaller is better. Quail are super cute and if you order semi-boneless they are very easy to work with. Manchester Farms Quail sent me some quail and quail eggs to try out and it was a treat to work with them. For the holidays you can order their Home Chef gift pack which are perfect for Thanksgiving, Christmas or any other festive meal you are planning on. The nice thing about quail is they are an individual serving. They feel special and are tasty.

When I was looking at quail recipes several of them had chicken or sausage in the stuffing which makes a lot of sense because quail are quite delicate and little, so adding a little extra meat into the stuffing inside helps round out the dish and fill you belly. In addition to being very cute and tasty, what I like about using quail is that each person has an individual serving. I can make one that is dairy free by using oil instead of butter and soaking the bread cubes in a dairy free milk. I can make one that is gluten free by swapping out the bread for gluten-free bread. I can make one that is mushroom free, by leaving out the mushrooms and adding in a few more other vegetables or one that is pork free by leaving out the sausage and adding in more mushrooms. You prep everything and modify as you go. I happen to have many small pans and oven safe dishes so the quails can be cooked separately to avoid cross contamination. On the other hand, if everyone in your family eats everything, you can cook them all in one lovely cast iron or oven safe pan and dish them out individually at the table.

The Home Chef gift pack from Manchester Farm Quail comes with bacon wrapped quail legs (40 pieces), 2 packs of, marinated breast medallions (8 total ) and 2 packs of natural semi-boneless quail (8 total) . This is enough for 8 to have quail as a main with plenty of holiday sides, the medallions are perfect to schnnitzel, grill or pan fry for the children or childlike adults who prefer a simple cut of meat. The bacon wrapped quail are great for a little party treat to serve another day or as an appetizer before the holiday feast.

Here is how I made the stuffed quail. Modify the fillings as needed. If you are doing a few batches of stuffing to accommodate food allergies, I recommend. prepping all the vegetables first and gathering your ingredients so that you can be organized and keep things separate as needed.

Stuffed Quail for the Holidays

Serves 8 people; 8 semi-boneless quail

• 8 semi-boneless quail
• 4 cups bread cubes (I used a white sourdough loaf that had gone stale)
  sub gluten free if needed.
• 1 1/2 cups milk
  sub oat milk if needed
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
  sub Miyokos or other dairy free butter if needed
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped
• 1 pound button mushrooms, stems removed and tops washed. You can trim and use the stems if you have the time and patience
• 2 links sweet Italian sausage (about 7 ounces), slice casing to take out the ground seasoned sausage
• 1 bunch scallions thinly sliced (about 1 cup)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 cups dry red wine
• several sprigs of fresh thyme
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley
• 1/3 cup freshly grated Grana Padano
  leave out for dairy free version

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Farenheit.

In a bowl, soak the bread cubes in milk. You can split this as needed if you are doing gluten free or dairy free versions.

Heat the olive oil in one pan (or two if you are doing a dairy free and/or gluten free version) and add 2 TBS of the butter. Sauté the onion and celery until softened over medium high heat for 6-8 minutes. Increase the heat to high. Add in the finely chopped mushrooms. While the mushroom start to cook make sure everything is spread out in the pan so that the onions don’t start to burn. Slice the sausages open and drop little bits of the sausage all around the pan to start to brown. Break the sausage up with a spoon as it is cooking. Toss in the scallions, 1/2 tsp of salt and pepper and continue cooking until the mushrooms and sausage have browned.

Reduce the heat to medium and pour in 1/2 cup of the red wine and stir to mix. Raise the heat to medium high while scraping up the browned bits on the pan to deglaze a little with the wine. Once the wine has cooked down, spoon the whole mixture into a medium sized bowl and allow to cool.

Squeeze the milk out of the bread cubes, and add the bread cubes to the vegetable bowl. Here again, split the vegetables into two batches if one is going to be gluten-free.

Mix the bread and vegetables, breaking it up a bit with your fingers as you go. Add in the parsley and optional Parmesan next.

Pat the quail dry on a paper towel. Put some salt and pepper in a little bowl or pinch pot and season the quail inside and out with the mixture. I also added a little pinch of baking soda to help crisp the skin.

Fill each quail with the cooled stuffing and place on a plate to rest, while you prepare the pan and mushrooms. Take an oven safe pan that will fit the quail (or individual pans and dishes if you have separate versions to accommodate allergies). Melt the remaining 4 TBSP of butter in the pan(s). Toss in the sprigs of thyme. Add the sliced mushrooms to the pan and sauté on medium high until golden brown. Add the remaining cup of red wine to the pan(s). Cook down for several minutes, then add the stuffed quail to the pan breast side up. Place the pan in the 400 degree oven and cook for 30 minutes. If you would like to brown the skin of the quail a little more after cooking, you can place the pan under the broiler for a couple of minutes. Season the sauce with salt and pepper. Serve the quail with some mushrooms and sauce spooned over each one at the table.