With teal season upon us this weekend I'll be in the duck marsh while the Ags BTHOULM!

Anyway, I was thinking of ways to prepare teal and thought about taking the time to pluck the bird (I use the paraffin wax dip on bigger birds) and then maybe break it down to deep-fry like chicken. And I mean to fry it on the bone, not just boned out breasts.

Anybody else done this?

Very tough!!!!!

You'd have to be real careful to not overcook that. In my experience wild waterfowl get tough and dry real fast. Early season teal are most likely gonna be leaner as well, at least compared to a Mallard in December.

I've done basically a reverse sear on whole teal, and breasted duck, before. Slowly bring it up to temp in the oven (up to 120ish) then pan fry in some hot oil.

I prefer waterfowl medium rare though.

Edit: I went back and looked at some notes I had and I lowered the target temp for bringing it out of the oven.

*Disclaimer* I cook food to those temps because I am the one that harvested and handled it. If its meat someone else provides me I assume they didn't handle it as best as they could, and cook it accordingly.

Didn't think of that.

My usual way to cook teal is to slice the breasts off the keel bone, salt & pepper, and then pan sear in my cast-iron skillet with a little grease. Like maybe 90-seconds per side so they're still quite rare. This always comes out great and wins raves.

I just saw a thing on FB today from "Garden & Gun" about fried chicken, got a bit of a craving for fried yard-bird, and thought of applying it to teal.

Crockpot with your choice of hydration added. I like mushroom soup or a cream of rice.

John Cocktolstoy said:

---

Crockpot with your choice of hydration added. I like mushroom soup or a cream of rice.

---

That's ruining good duck.

Nah it's mighty tasty.

I save those recipes for snow geese where I don't want to taste the bird much.

That's why I use goose meat for jerky.

And yea, quick pan sear on either side is a great option as well. I've never had a complaint when I treat it like a tenderloin.

I usually cook teal like dove - on the bone and wrapped with bacon. I marinate for a couple of hours with a mix of Italian dressing and a sweet BBQ sauce. I save some sauce to mop on the grill. Cook to medium, no more. It is my kids favorite meal.

I had chicken fried quail at a restaurant in Fredericksburg and it was outstanding. They left the bird intact in one piece and just split it open and cleaned it before battering the whole thing and frying. Will eat again.

Make duck prosciutto out of the breasts and duck confit out of the legs.

I tried to fry one in my turkey fryer one year. It was terrible. Also, it turns out that the oil is NOT hot enough to remove tiny pin feathers that you missed.

I fed to the dog who only kinda acted like he liked it.

Sticks&Stones said:

---

I had chicken fried quail at a restaurant in Fredericksburg and it was outstanding. They left the bird intact in one piece and just split it open and cleaned it before battering the whole thing and frying. Will eat again.

---

Hard to screw up a quail.

Cut the breast into strips and make Teal finger basket. Use the rest of the bird in gumbo.

HTownAg98 said:

---

Make duck prosciutto out of the breasts and duck confit out of the legs.

---

Not usually enough fat on early season teal to do that. If there are any squealers left around during big duck season I'll do that. Those buggers get all kinds of fat gorging on rice all year. The problem is they usually head south before big duck season.

I do use the carcasses to make duck stock and use everything but the breasts for gumbo. I also have some hearts & livers that are frozen right now and will be used to make dirty rice (along with the duck stock).

Finn Maccumhail said:

---

My usual way to cook teal is to slice the breasts off the keel bone, salt & pepper, and then pan sear in my cast-iron skillet with a little grease. Like maybe 90-seconds per side so they're still quite rare. This always comes out great and wins raves.

---

This is about the only way I cook duck breasts. I just use salt only. If I leave the duck whole and keep the skin on, it goes in the smoker.