Kwek Kwek is a Filipino street food made up of boiled quail eggs that’s coated in a savory batter and deep fried until light and crispy. Served with a side of sauces and dips, this Filipino classic is both fun and delicious to eat!

What is Kwek Kwek?

Kwek Kwek is one of the many varieties of street food that can be found in the Philippines. It’s categorized as a “tusok-tusok” streetfood, meaning to “poke” or to “pierce” with a skewer. Other street foods such as fish balls, squid balls, or grilled hotdogs can also be found under this umbrella term!

You can find these typically being sold in most Filipino street food carts, where the vendors are most likely walking around the neighborhoods. They sell for incredibly cheap in the Philippines, making Kwek Kwek extremely popular amongst locals, students, and foreigners.

Kwek Kwek is simply made up of hardboiled quail eggs that’s coated in a pancake-like batter, and deep-fried until light and crispy. It’s normally served with a side of sauces/dips, usually spiced vinegar or fishball sauce (which is a thick, sweet and savory sauce).

I’ve been massively craving these ever since I’ve had it again in my trip back to the Philippines in 2012. Luckily for us, making Kwek Kwek is super straightforward (just be patient with the egg-peeling!)

Ingredients for Kwek Kwek

Quail eggs: Quail eggs are basically mini chicken eggs and they taste almost exactly the same. Quail eggs are used for this recipe because they cook fast and they’re small enough to pierce into skewers. You can typically find these eggs being sold in most Asian supermarkets! Look for the small beige eggs that’s covered with dark splotches.
Flour, cornstarch: The flour provides the base for our batter, and the cornstarch helps to make the resulting texture light and crispy.
Baking powder: This will add a slight “lift” to our batter, making it light and not overly dense when deep fried.
Annato/Atsuete powder: Annato is a natural food coloring that colors food orange or red (depending on the amount added). You can find packets of this being sold in most Asian groceries or Filipino stores. If you’re out of luck, feel free to substitute it wth a couple drops of orange food coloring!

Is orange food coloring necessary?

My purist side says yes, you absolutely need it. No exceptions. It’s what makes Kwek kwek so iconic: the bright orange color of the batter!

But other than visual looks, it doesn’t really add a lot taste-wise. If you opted to use annatto powder as a coloring, you may taste a slight aromatic, earthy, and peppery taste. But since we’re only using a small amount, the flavor that it adds is really negligible.

With that being said, if you decided not to use anatto powder or food coloring with the batter, it’s not the end of the world. It will taste just as great, if not the same, as the original recipe.

Can I use regular eggs?

Yes, regular eggs are perfectly fine to use for this recipe.

In fact, Kwek Kwek’s chicken egg version is actually called “Tokneneng“, which uses the same exact batter and sauces!

Instructions

Bring a pot of water to a boil. Gently place the quail eggs in the water and let boil for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes, place the boiled eggs in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, peel off the egg shells and set aside.

To prepare the wet batter, combine together the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, anatto powder, salt, pepper, and water in a large bowl. Mix until thoroughly combined and you end up with a pancake-like batter consistency.

Lightly coat the peeled quail eggs with the 1/4 cup of flour (this will help the wet batter stick on to the egg’s surface).

Coat the quail eggs with the wet batter. Deep-fry for 1-2 minutes, or until the coating is light and crispy.

Pierce onto skewers and serve with spiced vinegar or fishball sauce. Enjoy!

Looking for more delicious Asian street foods? Here’s some more classics:

Tteokbokki (Korean Spicy Rice Cakes)
Turon (Filipino Crispy Banana Springrolls)
Taiwanese Popcorn Chicken
Okonomiyaki (Japanese Savory Pancake)