Cornish hen recipes?

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Anyone have a good simple one ? Looking to make two tomorrow for dinner….just dunno how to cook them….

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I recommend an oven.

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Great tip Mark, !

Now all I have to do is go catch two of the little ######s

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Think of them as very small chickens – stuff them lightly with your favourite stuffing mix or just season the cavity and make your stuffing on the side. Or maybe serve it with wild rice! Yummy! They only take about 1 to 1 1/4 hours to bake whole at 325

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Skitter,
Sure sounds easy enough…will try for dinner tonight . As for the Mrs and Tessy, they’re good….
Babies sure do grow fast, don’t they?![/size]

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Cornish Game Hens
2 Cornish Game Hens, split
To split hens: Cut hens along backbone. Place on cutting board cut side down. Flatten with the heel of your hand by pressing down on the breastbone until you hear it crack.
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Lift breast skin away from flesh of hens and insert about 1 teaspoon of the garlic/herb butter under the skin of the hen.
Repeat with another teaspoonful in the other side of the breast.
Replace skin, trying to enclose “stuffing” tightly.
Repeat with other hen.
Brush both hens with the remaining butter making sure that the thighs are well covered.
Place hens skin side up in a roasting pan on the roasting rack and sprinkle with black pepper.
Roast for about 30 minutes, basting every 5 minutes with the pan drippings.
Check for doneness by inserting a fork where the leg meets the thigh.
If the juices run clear then the hens are done.
Remove from the oven and cool for 5 – 10 minutes to let the juices settle.
Serve immediately

Garlic Herbed Butter
6 ounces Butter or Margarine, softened not melted
4 cloves Garlic minced
1 tablespoon chopped Basil Leaves
1 tablespoon chopped Chives
1 tablespoon chopped Parsley
Salt and Pepper to taste
Mix together basil, garlic, parsley and chives with softened butter.
You can mix any assortment of fresh herbs with the butter – anything goes!

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That sounds good…similar to the recipe I used for the duck I cooked on Thanksgiving (yes..I had a turkey, too…)

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Wrappen them in streaky bacon will also keep them moist … and the bacon is pretty good too

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So how did these Cornish hens turn out? Were they And how did you fix them?

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They’re still in the freezer.

I’m not sure when I’ll cook them now, but when I do, I’ll let you know

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Maybe you can serve them some evening with candles lit, music in the background, etc. The Cornish hens do make a meal seem “very special” for some reason!

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A bit late, but if you haven’t defrosted the game hens yet, my favorite method of roasting them whole is to stuff them with a whole lemon which I have rolled under my palm to soften, and then pierced a few times with a fork. A small-sized lemon is more than sufficient for this purpose. Season the outside with salt and baste occasionally with butter and the drippings that accumulate in the roasting pan. They turn out very moist and fragrant, but I find a whole bird a bit messy to handle at the table.

On Christmas day, I decided about 4:00 pm to fix a game hen for my solo feast, and thawed one in a bowl of warm water in about an hour, changing the water every 15-20 minutes. I split the hen along the breastbone & back and broiled the halves for about 20 minutes. I seasoned them very simply with salt and some freshly-grated dried rosemary and basting them with a bit of butter during the cooking process. I started them under the broiler skin side up, turned them after 7 mintues, broiled them skin-side down for another 7 minutes, then back skin-side up for one last go, and to crisp the skin.

I polished off one half for Christmas dinner, and finished the left-overs the next night.

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