Hainanese Quail and Rice

Warning: This post talks about using poultry I have raised as food. If that makes you uncomfortable, please skip this post.

First, if you’re interested in raising quail for yourself or your family, whether for eggs or for meat, check out my quail raising guide! As they have a tendency to do, once the male quail have reached maturity and their testicles reach full size (which, for such tiny birds, are just massive in comparison), they begin killing one another The Purge style. This means other than the ones I am keeping for breeding, the rest of the boys get processed for meat since they are very violent and relentless in the pursuit of being top quail.

In general most recipes for quail really just involve stuffing and roasting them, but I wanted to reimagine other chicken recipes, of which quail are a cousin of (quail and chicken can actually hybridize, although the resulting offspring are sterile.) Quail is more dark meat than white meat, and would be what I’d consider and more chicken-y flavored mini chicken. So I decided to make a beloved childhood recipe: Hainanese Chicken and Rice, except using quail! Quail is very tender so the meat is a bit more delicate than chicken, be sure not to overcook!

Hainan Chicken Rice is a poached chicken dish from south-east Asia with a delicious chili sauce and a sweet and savory soy sauce, with flavorful and fluffy rice cooked with the poaching broth. As a child, we would go to a little hole in the wall Malaysian restaurant where this was always ordered. Quail is much smaller than chicken so it cooks much quicker. For the hot sauce, which this recipe would not be complete without, check out my post here. I always have leftover bumper crops of hot peppers, and it’s my favorite hot sauce to make.

Ingredients

• 2 – 4 quail, skin on, giblets removed
• 1 inch piece of ginger, sliced into thin slices, with one slice minced
• 4 sprigs scallion, with a teaspoon of the whites minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• Enough water to just cover the quail in a pot
• Sweet soy sauce (equal parts soy sauce mixed with the poaching broth, and sugar, to taste)
• 2 cups Jasmine Rice (or other long grained fragrant rice), washed
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 tablespoon cooking oil or chicken fat
• Salt to taste
• Ginger Chili Sauce (Ginger, lime, garlic, hot red peppers, salt, sugar)
• Sliced cucumbers, for garnish

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil and add the quail, ginger slices, scallion sprigs, and salt to taste. Reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for about 5-7 minutes and then turn off the heat. Allow the residual heat to poach the quail. Alternatively you can cook it at a simmer for about 10-15 minutes and then place the quail in an ice bath. Strain and reserve the poaching broth.
2. In a pan, sauté the minced ginger, garlic, and scallion whites in cooking oil or chicken fat until fragrant, being careful not to burn. Add the rice and cook until the rice is fragrant and hot, and add 2.5 cups of the poaching liquid. Reduce the heat, cover and steam on low until rice is cooked through. Alternatively you can add the rice (after sauté with the aromatics) and the broth into a rice cooker and cook it that way.
3. Chop the quail into bit sized pieces (or whole if you’d like), and serve with rice, sweet soy sauce, chili sauce, and cucumber.