Eat Quail for Thanksgiving (or later)!

Sarah MickeyAll Recipes, General 84 Comments

Ah, Thanksgiving…day of so many great rituals.  Football, family, frantically trying to thaw a giant turkey, roasting said bird for hours, praying to the poultry gods that it doesn’t dry out…

If you’re wincing right now, here’s your chance to leave the culinary catastrophes behind: ditch the turkey and serve quail instead!  They’re as tiny as they are tasty.

This week we’re giving 24 semi-boneless quail to one lucky person, who’ll get the chance to tell their friends that they “ate a whole bird” on Thanksgiving Day and will be eligible to compete in our Ridiculously Delicious Challenge.

The Quail are Going to Shannon!

Comment #17, submitted by Shannon, has been randomly selected.  Congratulations!  It sounds like she’s planning on serving the quail with a corn-bread jalapeno stuffing.  Yum!

Comments 84

  1. Stuffing is my favorite holiday and especially Thanksgiving dish. My friend Olivia makes the best cornbread stuffing from scratch. Come to think of it, I need to get the recipe from her now!

  6. I want to enter the challenge, and I want to eat tiny birds. 🙂

    I am fascinated by the semi-boneless idea – I wonder if I could fit an apple inside one.

    Honestly, my favorite Thanksgiving dish is only traditional within my own family. It started out at Waldorf salad, but it mutated into apples, pecans, and bananas bound together with mayonnaise. No matter how much my mother would make, there were never leftovers.

    If you pick me, though, I’ll warn you that it will have to be a post-Thanksgiving experiment, as I’m going to Rome for Thanksgiving. And, yes, I’m casually slipping that into as many conversations as possible.

  10. My family has never been into the candied, sugary sweet style of sweet potatoes. We have a roasted parsnip & turnip combo, or savory rosemary roasted sweet potatoes. These are always my favorite, even the few times they turned out black and burnt because my mom was busy yelling at my brother for being late, and especially the lucky times I remembered to make more than I thought I needed just so we could have leftovers, which would undoubtedly be eaten cold, straight from the refrigerator.

  11. Stuffing is my favorite! And since we were all vegetarians until this year we would always serve Indian Samosas and Dal for thanksgiving. Samosas would be on equal ground with Stuffing..yum!

  13. There is absolutely no question. Sweet Potato Casserole. With Brown-Sugar Pecan Streusel. Never marshmallows.

    If you even try to get within a 20-yard radius of my sweet potatoes with a marshmallow on Thanksgiving I will disown you as a friend or relative. [Trust me, it’s happened before.]

  14. My favorite Thanksgiving dish is Pit BBQ Cabrito. Of course, there are always several turkeys in the Pit right next to the Cabrito. If you have warm tortillas ready when the goat is comes out of the ground, it may not make it to the table. This year we will try Wild Boar in the Pit.

  16. I’m a big fan of kale and dried fruit stuffing. I’m making it today actually, since I’m not hosting TG this year and it won’t travel well!

  17. Hands down, my favorite Thanksgiving dish is stuffing. This year I plan on making a variation with corn-bread and jalapenos. And I’ll probably eat my weight in it because I’ll be running a 5k right before the feast. I think these quail would love to sit alongside my stuffing on my T-day table 😉

  18. My favorite Thanksgiving tradition is eating oysters as an appetizer either raw or steamed and enjoying a cold beer before settling in for the big feast.

    Oyster stuffing takes the mainstage for me over turkey as well.

  22. My favorite thanksgiving dish is home made cranberry relish or my grandmother’s baked macaroni and cheese.

  23. Favorite dish would have to be simple roasted sweet potatoes drizzled with maple syrup and a dot of butter.

  26. My favorite is the stuffing. Cornbread, sweet sausage and apples….of course the herbs and other goodies…I can’t wait to fill up my quails.

  27. Love Thanksgiving!! It’s the meal that there’s a little bit of everything and then some, and a meal that’s even better the second time around!!!

  28. Here on the sands of outer Cape Cod, we have a very special local vegetable, the Eastham Turnip. It’s quite large with a purple top, and sweet and spicy-hot, somewhat like a diakon radish. The Cape Cod way is to serve them in a white sauce. However, I like to make them in a kind of Florentine-inspired way, parboiled and diced, then baked with sauteed leeks and a nutmeg-parmesan cream sauce.
    Happy Thanksgiving from Wellfleet, Cape Cod!

  29. For me, it’s all about the bird! I will vary the sides year after year but it’s not Thanksgiving without Turkey!

  31. I’ve been meaning to try these little birds stuffed and roasted in parchment paper the way Lidia did it.

    Thanksgiving and all the holidays my family gather at my table to savor the homemade mozzarella I make; it is warm and creamy and the best there is!

  35. I’m a traditionalist, with one exception. For Thanksgiving and Christmas, organic turkey, yukon mashed potatoes, carrots, broccoli, sauce from scratch. Pumpking and apple pie. Yummy

  37. OK! I would combine lots o’ crushed garlic, equal parts red pepper flakes, cayenne powder and paprika, little less cumin, even less coriander, salt and enough butter to make a thick paste. Rub all dem quails with my magic and squeeze a quauter of a lemon into each lil bird. Put them in a deep roasting pan with a dribble of organic chicken broth. Roast till done and salivation ensues.

    Please give me these Quails cause it’ll be so funny when I tell people I won 24 birds, and because I love quail eggs! and cause winning makes me feel good, and because I LOVE YOU!!!!

    Please?

  39. I am envisioning the classiest college dinner party of all time with these birds… I’d love to try them!

    Favorite thanksgiving dish – has to be the day after turkey-cranberry sauce-stuffing-cream cheese sandwiches. Mmmmmm.

  43. My favorite Thanksgiving dish is the cornbread stuffing my sweety makes. It is laced with kielbasa,breakfast sausage, green and red peppers, onions, and celery. AWESOME !!!

  45. My favorite Thanksgiving dishes are turkey + stuffing followed by ppecan pie with vanilla ice cream. Yum!

  46. I just love my grandson’s fried turkey. He injects them with a cajun and terriaki seasoning. Yes, he fries two and we make two regular roasted turkeys in the oven. This way everyone has some to take home with pleanty of leftovers. Can you tell we are an Italian family? Hey we did stop having lasagna first. LOL

  47. Garlic sweet potato mac & cheese with bacon that I started serving to the family a few years back. People have started to ask for it outside of the holidy so I know it’s a hit.

  48. Pumpkin Pie is the best! I make an event each year of getting pie pumpkins from the farmers market and putting a dozen pies in the freezer. Two for Thanksgiving served with fresh and lightly sweetened whipped cream. So good, we eat the other ten pies throughout the year.

  51. I am always asked to prepare the stuffing for our family Thanksgiving Dinner … I do a multi-wild mushroom / tri color sweet bell pepper stuffing … I also add sage sausage and roasted walnuts …. it’s always a hit !

  53. I love Dirty rice at Thanksgiving, I change my mom recipe she always use chicken livers in the rice now i cook the dinner and I use Truffles and sausage everyone love it inclding my mom.

  57. Gravy. The sauce of the gods. Pour it over everything on your plate. That is what Thanksgiving is all about… gravy and quail!

  59. There’s nothing better than stuffing!!

    I remember getting up early Thanksgiving morning with mom to make the stuffing. We would mix by hand and keep sampling it until it was just right! Then, when the bird was done, we would scoop every bit out – topped with that wonderful gravy, nothing was better!!

    Until the next morning when I’d get up and zap a scoop with more gravy for breakfast!!

  60. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite times. Good home made dishes made from the heart to share with family. Having the kids home, laughing and kidding around with each other while sharing the cooking. With the aroma of turkey roasting throughout the home. The moment is priceless.

  65. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday — a day for family and expressing gratitude for our many blessings. My favorite dish is homemade mashed potatoes and stuffing, smothered in homemade gravy.

  67. We actually make sushi every year for Thanksgiving. My favorite roll is always fresh-made California rolls with hand-picked dungeness crab.

  68. Stuffing, obviously. It encompasses so many parts of the meal from the giblets to the biscuits in my family’s recipe and as a food conglomerate fan. Thanksgiving stuffing takes the cake!

  69. I love the turkey and sage dressing. I like the breast meat and the sage dressing is just so yummy.

    Thanks,

    Sandra J

  70. Pecan Pie is my favorite Thanksgiving delicacy. It is so much a trip into the past and all of my Southern roots. My mother always made it, always using DARK Karo syrup and my mother-in-law always made it with the most beautiful pecan placement design. For a food selection, (I always think dessert first) I’ll say turkey gravy is the most delicious part!

  71. My favorite is stuffing, stuffing, stuffing. Can’t figure how I am going to make is nongluten this year but I will.

  72. My favorite Thanksgiving food is pumpkin pie. Now that my family is non glutin my mom is trying something new and non-gluten…..I’m worried.

  73. The stuffing is my favorite..cornbread and pecans and sausage stuffing… oh my mouth is literally watering right now.

  75. Lately I have taken a liking to whole cranberry sauce simmered with fresh oranges and a hint of cinnamon.

  76. I do believe that sweet potatoes with nutmeg, cinnamon and brown sugar is the best thing one could have a with a turkey…nay a quail!

  77. I am with everyone here who has owned up to loving green bean casserole. I know – it’s part of why our bodies won’t decompose ever, but it’s just such a classic, americana kind of Thanksgiving food.

  78. I adore tiny teeny little birds. I give them a dry rub massage with a special spice blend and then as they quickly sear on my grill I make a pomegranate molasses reduction and serve them on a bed of buttery mashed parsnips.HOwever I’m cooking a mustard crusted pork roast this Thanksgiving and the ‘rents will not eat teeny tiny birds,, no how no way. My favorite Thanksgiving dish is my one stir oven roasted polenta in a clay pot served with a dried porcini ragout. I always make it, they always love it.

  79. The doctor told me yesterday he wants me on a gluten-free diet, so i will have to skip the stuffing and pumpkin pie — my two favorites — at Thanksgiving. he said, “it will be plenty of baked chicken and salads for you from now on.” The quails would definitely help out.

  81. When I had cancer my sister knew I liked Brussel sprouts and she made a great dish with sliced sprouts and bacon. Yummy.

  84. my father was a hunter, so he introduced us to the fine flavor of quail. count me in. my favorite way to cook up fresh cranberries is to add a few red hots (cinnamon imperials) while the cranberries are cooking to give a richer color and a bit of cinnamon flavor to the sauce.

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