Coca Cola Quail is made with Coca Cola. I use left over bottles after visitors because it makes THE best sweet and sour. Give it a go. 
Coca Cola Quail. Coca Cola Sweet and Sour
Quails , they are rather delicious. Seems people avoid them a bit because they have lots of bones and I suppose some people may not have cooked them before. Butterflied with only the leg bones remaining , they are no harder to cook than chicken. They are very quick cooking and have a delicate gamey taste. Game Farm have a range of prepared boned quails and quail breasts. Support your local butcher and ask them to order them in for you. The recipe for these Coca Cola quail was inspired by “ Have you Eaten” by Billy Law. I was quite surprised to see a recipe using Coca Cola , but after a quick search of the Internet I learned that the use of Coca Cola, lemonade and even Fanta are quite common, so I have re-created this unusual and surprisingly tasty recipe. I have used Quails for an elegant and quite fat free result but you can use drumsticks, chicken fillet, or even Spatchcock they will all taste delicious
Recipe adapted from here. Thank you Sneh.
Coca Cola Quail with Snow peas
Despite containing all of the things I usually avoid, this dish is deliciously Chinese in flavour. The coke creates a caramelly sweet and sour note..... just try it!
Ingredients
- 6 whole Quail boned (or 500 gm of chicken 6 drumsticks or 4 butterflied Spatchcocks)
- 100 ml peanut oil
- 4 Tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 Tablespoon ginger of finely grated
- 150 gm onion sliced
- 2 cloves garlic crushed
- 4 Tablespoons tomato sauce (ketchup)
- 300 ml coke 1 small bottle
- 200 gm snow peas
- 1 whole red chilli sliced
- 1 cup coriander leaves and chopped stems
- 50 gm cashews toasted
Instructions
- Put the Quails (or other) into a shallow bowl and pour over the soy sauce and the ginger and let them marinate as long as possible (10 minutes to overnight)
- Heat a wok or a large fry pan and add oil. When very hot, add the Quails skin side down searing and browning them, reserving the marinade.
- When browned, turn the Quails over and add the onion and garlic. Saute till just fragrant and without browning the garlic, then add the tomato sauce the coca cola and let simmer on low with the lid on until it comes to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Remove the Quail onto a plate and reduce the liquid by half. Add the Quail back to the pan with the snowpeas and , put the lid on leaving on the heat till the snow peas are still crunchy but lightly steamed. Add cashews and serve with the sliced chilli and coriander.
- These is lovely with plain rice or quinoa
Here is a video on de-boning Quail, but dont forget you can buy boned Quail
Cooking Quail on the grill
Like a sweet and sour only easy!
This method also works beautifully with chicken. Or try this Chicken recipe
Quails were provided for recipe testing by Game Farm.
I have never used coke for cooking either but I remember that Nigella makes a savoury dish with it. I did try a chocolate cake in the US recently with coke and it was delicious -yum!
My husband is a big quail fan (I do too, and I love quail eggs!). I remember my mom used to cook chicken wings with coca cola… I haven’t had it for ages! Your quail looks beautiful and delicious. I need to go find quail and try your recipe!
What an interesting combination. That dish looks marvelous!
Best wishes for 2013!
Cheers,
Rosa
Quails, quails, more quails! Love it! seems so easy and delicious! (will have to twist my arm to get the coke though but happy to give it a try- just because I trust you!)
I’ve heard of coca cola used in savory dishes before but have never tried it. I’m very intrigued!
I love the idea of the photo sequence but it keeps moving the text because one of the photos is portrait and the others are different sizes too. It makes it very hard to read your post. I hope you don’t mind me mentioning this but maybe you haven’t noticed.
Ihave noticed Suzanne but I am just learning to use this slide portfolio. I am on holidays and can’t fix it right now. But thank you
Hi All just wanted to say if you put the slide sow on PAUSE it will not make the text jump
What an intriguing recipe indeed! I’m sure it tastes fantastic though. Quail is a lovely dish and my youngest daughter insists on ordering it when we go out- she loves gnawing every scrap of meat of the bones. I’ll have to make this dish especially for her 🙂
Now that’s a new use for coke that I’ve never thought of! Looks very good and I think the flavours would be amazing. I’ll try this with the butterflied spatchcocks. xx
It does look very delicious! Had cola chicken, but never thought of using it with quail…unique!
This dish looks absolutely delicious, Tania. I love quail and this looks like a great recipe.
I often do chicken in coke! I must try and find some quails to cook 🙂
Ooh, what a creative way to use Coca-Cola!
What a very easy and flavourful recipe: fun with the quail, practical with other poultry perhaps more easily accessed. To try it I’m even game to buy a bottle of Coke – something I normally never ever touch 🙂 ! All the best for the yer ahead!!!
yes, we have to buy a small bottle otherwise it sits in the fridge till the next time we make this recipe