Southern Smothered Quail on Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits with Fried Quail Eggs

Written by Jeff Davis

Prep Time: 4 hours - Cook Time: 30 min

Growing up in the Air Force, we moved around a lot. Never in any one place more than a few years. Needless to say, none of those places ever felt like home. The only place that did, was my Grandparents house in Tennessee. As a kid, we'd always came back to Tennessee for vacation. My Grandparents owned a large farm with lots of acreage for a young kid to explore. My parents would just turn me lose on the farm, armed with my Red Rider BB gun and I'd be gone all day. My Grandmother would be sure to remind me not to kill her blue birds. I remember being startled to death more than a few times, by coveys of quail taking flight as I spooked them from their hiding place, usually on a fence line. It's too bad you don't see birds like that in Tennessee that much anymore, at least not around here.

My Grandmother was a school cook for a while. I remember the spread she'd put out for breakfast!! She'd spend all morning in the kitchen preparing food for the whole family with never a complaint. There were eggs, country ham, biscuits, gravy, bacon, sausage, hash browns ... and one of mine and grandpa's favorites ... fried chicken gizzards. It felt like she spent our whole vacation in the kitchen preparing meals for us and the rest of the family that would come visit. Often times, there were so many people at their house, that we'd have to set chairs out in front yard and camp out under an old pecan tree that offered up plenty of shade in the hot afternoon sun.

One day while hunting, I came across a covey of quail. They didn't really try to get away from me and not knowing any better, I shot a few of them and carried them back to Grandma's house. She was quick to clean them for me, then cooked them up the next morning for me to eat. I think that was the first time I'd ever had fried quail ... . It was a meal I'd remember for the rest of my life.

Grandma definitely had a lot to do with me being a breakfast man, I can skip any other meal ... but I need my breakfast. I like the full spread ... . but sausage gravy and biscuits are a must, to me ... nothing is better. My Grandmother, and Mom for that matter, would fix this gravy and make it look so easy. It's one of those things where you ask for the recipe and they say ... "I don't really have a recipe". There is nothing to it, Oil, Flour and Milk ... but I struggled my whole life trying to figure out how to make it ... I can't tell you how many batches I've had to throw out over the years trying to recreate some of those breakfast meals. Breakfast wouldn't be complete without eggs, so I fried up a few Quail eggs and made my own hot sauce from the Peppers and Tomatillo, that I grew in my garden, to dizzle over top of them. This meal is my tribute to my Grandmother and all those huge breakfast meals she ever cooked for us.

Ingredients

Hickory Smoked Sea Salt

1/2 cup(s) Coarse Sea Salt

Hickory wood chips

Green Devil Hot Sauce

12 Jalapeno

4 Serrano Peppers

4 Tomatillos

1 1/2 cup(s) White Vinegar

1 tbsp Kosher Salt

3 Garlic Cloves

1 Small Yellow Onion

Buttermilk Biscuits

1 cup(s) All Purpose flour

1/2 tbsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1/2 cup(s) Buttermilk

1/4 cup(s) Unsalted Butter, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing biscuits

1 tbsp Honey

Hickory Smoked Sea Salt - to sprinkle on top

Sausage Gravy

2 Sausage Patties ( Hot or Mild )

1 1/2 cup(s) Warm Milk

1 tbsp All Purpose flour

1 tbsp Unsalted Butter

Ground Black Pepper

Salt

Fried Quail

8 Quail Breast

1 cup(s) Buttermilk, for brine, plus 1/2 cup for dredge

1/2 cup(s) All Purpose flour

1/2 cup(s) Yellow Corn Meal

1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1/2 tsp Ground Black Pepper

1/4 tsp Paprika

1/8 tsp Cayenne Pepper

Oil for Frying

Fried Quail Eggs

6 Quail eggs

1 tbsp Butter

Ground Black Pepper

Hickory Smoked Sea Salt

Green Devil Hot Sauce

Instructions

Hickory Smoked Sea Salt

Step #1 Soak wood chips in water. Turn smoker on and allow to warm to 200-225 degrees.

Step #2 Add Sea Salt to small baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Try to get Salt on single layer.

Step #3 Place Salt in smoker, adding wood chips every 30 minutes for about 4 hours.

Step #4 Remove salt and add to small container. This will make more salt then you'll use for this recipe, so store it in a small mason jar or another sealable container to use later.

Green Devil Hot Sauce

Step #1 Wash the peppers and tomatillo's

Step #2 Cut the ends off of peppers and remove husk from Tomatillos.

Step #3 Roughly cut the peppers, tomatillos, garlic and onion and add to a small saucepan.

Step #4 Add Vinegar and Salt.

Step #5 Bring mixture to boil. Then reduce to a simmer. Allow to simmer to 10 to 15 minutes.

Step #6 Remove from stove and pour mixture in food processor.

Step #7 Puree for 20 to 30 seconds.

Step #8 Allow to cool, taste and add more salt if needed. This will make a good bit of hot sauce, more than you can use here. Save it for a month or so and use scrambled eggs or anywhere else you'd use hot sauce.

Buttermilk Biscuits

Step #1 Combine 1 Cup All-purpose flour, 1/2 tbsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp of kosher salt in mixing bowl.

Step #2 Take half a stick of unsalted butter and cut into small cubes.

Step #3 Add butter to mixing bowl with flour and cut the butter into dough with Dough Blender tool. You don't need to over cut it. You want there to be chucks of butter in the dough.

Step #4 Pour Buttermilk into your mixing bowl and combine with flour mixture.

Step #5 Pour out onto a well-floured surface, gently kneading the dough a bit for a minute or two. Be sure to fold the dough over onto itself several times to create layers in the dough, but don't over do it here.

Step #6 Flatten dough so it's about 3/4 " thick, then use a biscuit cutter to cut your first biscuit. Do not twist the biscuit cutter when cutting the biscuits. Twisting can seal the edges, so they don't rise. This only makes 2 thick biscuits. If you want more biscuits, you can cut your dough thinner or double the recipe.

Step #7 Form the rest of the dough back into a 3/4" block and cut the remaining biscuit, there should be hardly any dough left, just a few trimmings.

Step #8 Place the cut biscuits on a small cutting board and stick in the freezer for 30 minutes or so. This will help create flaking biscuits.

Step #9 Preheat Oven to 425 Degrees.

Step #10 Mix 1 tbsp of melted unsalted butter with 1 tbsp of honey. Use a brush to apply mixture to the top of biscuits. Now sprinkle tops with Hickory Smoked Sea Salt.

Step #11 Add 1 tbsp of butter to a small cast iron skillet and stick it in the oven. This will help brown the bottom of the biscuits and give them a nice crunchy texture.

Step #12 When the butter is melted, add the biscuits to the middle of the skillet making sure they touch, this will help them rise.

Step #13 Cook in oven to 17-20 minutes, until they are done in the center.

Step #14 Move the biscuits to wire rack or cutting board to cool.

Sausage Gravy

Step #1 Add milk to saucepan and allow to heat on low for a while. Heat cast iron skillet on medium heat, adding sausage.

Step #2 Cook sausage until done. You should have left over sausage grease in the skillet. If you don't have at least one tablespoon of grease, you might consider cooking some additional sausage or you can add a little butter in a later step.

Step #3 Remove the sausage patties from skillet and add 1 tbsp of flour, using a fork to combine flour with left over sausage grease.

Step #4 If your sausage doesn't make enough grease and your flour still looks powdery in the skillet, add 1 tbsp of butter.

Step #5 The grease and flour should form a paste in the bottom of the skillet. Allow it to brown and bubble for a minute.

Step #6 Pour in warmed milk and stir continuously until mixture starts to thicken. When you can run a spatula through the gravy and it leave streaks, take it off the heat.

Step #7 Chop your cooked sausage into small piece and add to gravy.

Step #8 Add black pepper and salt to taste.

Fried quail

Step #1 Cut the breast meat out of your quail. Add to zip lock bag and pour buttermilk over top of quail. You might consider adding hot sauce to buttermilk mixture.

Step #2 Place in the refrigerator for a 2 to 4 hours.

Step #3 Remove from refrigerator and rinse buttermilk from quail. Dry meat with a paper towel.

Step #4 Fill skillet with about an inch of oil ( vegetable or canola ) and set heat to medium.

Step #5 Get three bowls for dredging station. Fill one bowl with 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour. One with 1/2 cup of buttermilk. In the last bowl, add 1/2 cup cornmeal and seasoning. I used Kosher Salt, Black Pepper, Paprika and Cayenne Pepper.

Step #6 Dredge the quail breast in flour, lightly coating. Then Buttermilk, then cornmeal mixture. Add to fryer.

Step #7 This only need to cook briefly. 1-2 minutes, until brown on each side.

Step #8 Remove to paper towel lined plate.

Fried Quail Eggs

Step #1 Add skillet to stove with 1 tbsp of butter. Set heat to medium low. Using a knife or quail egg scissors, cut the top of the quail eggs.

Step #2 Gently pour three eggs into measuring cup, so as not to break the yokes. Pouring all the eggs into the pan at one time will help them cook evenly.

Step #3 Now gently pour measuring cup with three eggs into skillet.

Step #4 Cook for a few minutes, until eggs whites turn white.

Step #5 Using a spatula, gently nudge the egg loose of the pan.

Step #6 Take the whole skillet to plate and gently slide eggs out onto plate.

Step #7 Repeat process for remaining three eggs.

Step #8 Sprinkle eggs with fresh cracked black pepper and hickory smoked sea salt.

Step #9 Drizzle eggs with hot sauce.

Step #10 Add biscuits to plate and split them in half. Place two Quail breast on each side of the biscuit. Pour Sausage gravy over top of Fried Quail Breast.

Recipe Card

Southern Smothered Quail on Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits with Fried Quail Eggs

Written by Jeff Davis Visit : Visit authors website

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Prep Time: 4 hours - Cook Time: 30 min