Hard boil quail eggs makes great snacks or enjoy them for breakfast, brunch, lunch or dinner as an egg side dish. They are also great in salads along with vegetables or other protein to make a healthy, filling meal. Once hard boiled and peeled, they can be easily added to salads, stir fries etc or you may save later as part of your weekly meal planning. If you want to learn how to cook quail eggs for breakfast or dinner, read this post!
More posts on boiled eggs include perfect boiled eggs on stove top, instant pot boiled eggs without rack, easy to peel hard boiled eggs, hard boiled duck eggs, how long to hard boil eggs, how to tell if hard boiled eggs are done, hard boiled egg sandwich and more!
More About Quail Eggs:
Quail eggs are eggs laid by quail birds which belong to the pheasant family.
In general, they look smaller in size, lighter in weight and comes with a lot of nutrition and health benefits.
You can cook them in many ways including making boiled eggs, fried eggs, omelettes, frittata or anything you normally would do with chicken eggs or duck eggs though the cooking time for quail eggs is usually lesser.
Quail Eggs VS Chicken Eggs
Quail eggs are small sized light weight eggs that you can use make boiled eggs, fried eggs etc as you like.
They are smaller than chicken eggs or duck eggs and they are only about ⅕th of the size of large chicken egg.
In fact, 3 quail eggs are considered almost equivalent to 1 chicken egg!
How Does Quail Eggs Look Like?
Quail eggs look much differently with regards to the color of the shells and size.
As mentioned early, the size of quail eggs is much smaller than chicken eggs.
Also the color of quail eggs is different from both chicken eggs whether they are white eggs or brown eggs.
The quail egg color is ivory or light cream with lots of dark brown or black colored speckles or spots all over the shells.
The patterns of the quail eggs are interesting and they are unique to each egg (the patterns vary in size and shades of brown or black). In fact, all quail eggs do not have the same patterns though they look similar.
However, once the eggs are hard boiled and the shells are peeled off, they look similar to boiled chicken eggs though the size is smaller!
How Long To Boil Quail Eggs?
Due to the small size of the eggs, you only need to boil about 3 minutes to make perfect hard boiled eggs.
This is much lesser time compared to chicken eggs which takes about 9 to 10 minutes time so boiling quail eggs is much faster and quicker compared to boiling chicken eggs.
What does boiled quail eggs taste like?
I was also curious to see how quail eggs tasted and I found that the boiled quail eggs tasted similar to boiled chicken eggs.
I couldn't tell any difference between boiled chicken eggs and quail eggs other than the very noticeable size difference of the eggs.
However, the yolk to white ratio is higher in quail eggs so some might feel they have more richer taste and more flavor from the yolks.
Peeling Quail Eggs - Is It Difficult To Peel Off Shells From Boiled Quail Eggs?
Due to the small size of quail eggs, it could be difficult to peel the shells off the quail eggs compared to large sized chicken eggs.
That is the only task you will take some extra few minutes in the whole process of cooking and peeling the eggs.
Other than the longer time you will need to peel off the shells, it is not difficult to peel quail eggs. Just like chicken eggs, if you use fresh eggs, the peeling can be difficult.
It is always easy to peel off the shells if you use little older eggs than fresh eggs.
Also, once the eggs are boiled, it is important to give enough time ice water bath and make sure the eggs are cooled completely before you trying to peel the shells, as the task is more easier with cold eggs.
Health Benefits Of Quail Eggs
Quail eggs are rich in nutrients and makes a great source of natural animal protein.
They are high in vitamins like Vitamin A, Vitamin B, Vitamin B12 etc which are essential for the body. Also, cholesterol in quail eggs is lesser than chicken eggs which makes them a healthier chocie.
You can learn more about the health benefits of quail eggs here.
So here is how you can quickly and easily make hard boiled quail eggs at home.
How To Make Hard Boiled Quail Eggs?
To make hard boiled quail eggs, we use the following ingredients.
Ingredients
quail eggs 30 (or as you prefer)
water 3 cups (or as needed to boil the eggs)
baking soda ½ teaspoon (or salt)
ice cubes 1 cup (for ice bath)
Step by step ingredients
Wash the eggs very well and carefully place the eggs in a single layer inside a medium sized saucepan (arranging the eggs in a single layer helps boil the eggs evenly).
Add water to the saucepan, make sure the eggs are immersed in the water (it is ideal if the water level is about 1 inch above the level of eggs).
Add baking soda (or salt) also to the sauce pan, then turn on the heat (keep in high heat) and wait for the water to come to a boil.
Once the water starts boiling , close the saucepan with a lid, reduce the heat to low and cook in low heat for 3 minutes.
While the eggs are cooking, prepare the ice bath in a different bowl for cooling the boiled eggs.
To make the ice bath, add the ice cubes to a large bowl of cold water. Keep this aside ready.
Once the eggs are boiled for three minutes, turn off the heat and transfer the saucepan to a cooler place.
Carefully transfer the boiled quail eggs to the bowl of ice water.
Let the eggs sit in the ice water bath for about 7 to 10 minutes at least until the eggs are completely cooled off.
If you are not in a hurry, it is a good idea to let the eggs completely cool down because it will be much easier to peel off the shells of the eggs once the eggs are cold.
Once the eggs are cooled, take them off the ice water bath and peel the shells.
To make the job easier, you may gently roll the eggs in a flat surface just like you do with chicken eggs.
Since the eggs are smaller in size, you may need a little more time to peel the shells.
Once this is done, the eggs are ready to be served so you can transfer them to a serving dish or you can add them to salads, curry or any dish where you use boiled eggs as you like or you may save them for later use in the refrigerator!
How To Store Quail Eggs In Fridge?
Once the eggs are cooled enough, you can peel off the shells of the quail eggs and enjoy immediately or save in the refrigerator (where it stays fresh for another few more days if stored properly) for later use!
Boiled and properly stored quail eggs in the refrigerator can be part of your healthy weekly menu plan since hard boiled eggs can be easily reheated and used as snacks, side dishes, salads and more!
However, just like any other hard boiled eggs, it is only recommended to store the hard boiled quail eggs for another 3 to 4 days or upto a week in the fridge, more than that it may not stay fresh.
Below you can get the recipe for hard boiled quail eggs in detail.
How To Cook Quail Eggs - Hard Boiled Quail Bird Eggs Recipe
Ingredients
- 30 quail eggs or as you prefer
- 3 cups water or as needed to boil the eggs
- ½ teaspoon baking soda or salt
- 1 cup ice cubes for ice bath
Instructions
- Wash the eggs very well and carefully place the eggs in a single layer inside a medium sized saucepan (arranging the eggs in a single layer helps boil the eggs evenly).
- Add water to the saucepan, make sure the eggs are immersed in the water (it is ideal if the water level is about 1 inch above the level of eggs).
- Add baking soda (or salt) also to the sauce pan, then turn on the heat (keep in high heat) and wait for the water to come to a boil.
- Once the water starts boiling , close the saucepan with a lid, reduce the heat to low and cook in low heat for 3 minutes.
- While the eggs are cooking, prepare the ice bath in a different bowl for cooling the boiled eggs. To make the ice bath, add the ice cubes to a large bowl of cold water. Keep this aside ready.
- Once the eggs are boiled for three minutes, turn off the heat and transfer the saucepan to a cooler place.
- Carefully transfer the boiled quail eggs to the bowl of ice water.
- Let the eggs sit in the ice water bath for about 7 to 10 minutes at least until the eggs are completely cooled off. If you are not in a hurry, it is a good idea to let the eggs completely cool down because it will be much easier to peel off the shells of the eggs once the eggs are cold.
- Once the eggs are cooled enough, you can peel off the shells of the quail eggs and enjoy immediately or save in the refrigerator (where it stays fresh for another few more days if stored properly) for later use!
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