Quail Recipes

Daniel Boulud sometimes makes this signature dish with squab, with a cube of foie gras in the stuffing.

The sweet port and orange sauce makes the dish at once robust and refined. At the ranch, the quail are served with a side dish of Savoy Cabbage and Pancetta.

"I'm half Chinese, so tea-marbled eggs were a staple snack," says Valerie Gordon. To turn the eggs into a sophisticated hors d'oeuvre, she soaks hard-boiled quail eggs in smoky Lapsang souchong tea and serves them with three different salts.

Quail seems intimidating to cook, but it's actually quite easy and fast.

These grilled quail are seasoned with a super-simple spiced yogurt marinade, which gives them delicious char on the outside and keeps the meat juicy within.

The Good News For something so elegant, these petite quail, stuffed with Madeira-soaked raisins and served with cabbage seasoned with caraway, are supersimple to make and full of lean protein (from the quail), antioxidants (from the raisins) and phytochemicals (from the cabbage).

Corey Lee uses Chinese dates, also called jujubes, in this elegant riff on a classic Chinese combination of poultry, fruit and nuts. Instead of the dates, look for goji berries, which are also a dried, red fruit.

This spicy citrus marinade keeps the quail meat juicy while giving it a beautiful char on the grill. The quails are extremely succulent and flavorful and make an elegant first course.

Christophe Emé says this is the kind of food his mother, Maryvonne, used to make when he was growing up in the Loire valley. Everything came from their backyard: the beans, the shallots, the laitue (similar to Boston lettuce), the eggs. His mother even made vinegar for the dressing. Emé refines and updates the recipe by using quail eggs instead of hen eggs and substituting arugula for the lettuce. Maryvonne used peanut oil in the dressing, as is traditional in the Loire, but Emé opts for olive oil instead.

Bryan Caswell left Texas for nine years, but there are some things he couldn't shake, like three-bean salad. It gives a Southern touch to his Asian-accented quail, which marinates in ginger, garlic and soy sauce. Caswell learned to make chile jam in Bangkok, but he says Texans love the heat.