Cornish Game Hens

My initial inspiration for this meal was when I realized that my sister might be in Provo for Thanksgiving and I wanted it to be awesome. So I wanted to try and make my own cranberry sauce. And you cant really just make cranberry sauce.... So I thought back to things my mom has made over the years and remembered her making Cornish Game Hens. So since I somehow forget the fact that you cant get fresh or frozen cranberries in the summer, this meal turned into a night about the Cornish Game Hens. Which is totally cool with me.

Cornish Game Hens are actually more normal than they sound. They aren't game birds, but simply young chickens, hence their small size. The recipe I use here is with rosemary, lemon, and garlic, for two hens.

The most important thing for this recipe is to make sure you have defrosted the hens in time. I pulled mine out of the freezer a little later than I had wanted, and despite them being mostly defrosted, the cavity will not open up completely if it is not defrosted, making it difficult to stuff, which is often part of similar hen recipes.

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Rub your two defrosted hens with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Lightly season with salt and pepper. Cut 1 lemon into wedges, and place 1 wedge and 1 sprig rosemary into each cavity. Cut and peel 12 garlic cloves and arrange in heavy roasting pan around hens. Roast in oven for 25 minutes.

This initial roasting at a high temperature will give the skin a nice brown and crispy texture. A very nice addition to this great dish.
While it roasts, combine 1/3 cup chicken broth, 1/3 cup white wine (or for those of us who don't drink, 1/3 cup water) and 2 tablespoons olive oil and whisk them together. After the roasting is finished, reduce the temperature to 350 degrees and pour mixture over hens. Continue to roast for at least 25 minutes, or more, depending on size of hens. Be sure to baste with the pan juices every 10 minutes. This is very crucial, as it keeps the birds moist as they cook, making for a great final product.
When I made these, it took quite a bit longer than 25 minutes for it to finish cooking. To check for doneness, you want to make sure the juices are running clear, not red at all, and that the internal temperature is 180 degrees when checked with a meat thermometer.

There will be plenty of juices from the broth and the chickens themselves to make gravy, which I did. But I will cover it that in another post about gravy from scratch.

All in all, this dish turned out great. The rosemary, lemon and garlic added a great subtle flavor, and the basting made the meat particularly moist. Cant get any better than that. It was a great thanksgiving meal in July!

Oh! And two Cornish Game Hens I found feeds about 4 people. Enjoy!


Always in the kitchen,

Mel