Sunday’s Column – The Little Bird That Could

Feb 17, 2014 by winjaw

(In honor of Valentine’s Day, I have decided to not run my annual “Obligatory Day” post. Instead, something a little different for your taste buds.)

My mother first introduced me to this dish, one I have played with over the years and now can say, voila, I’ve nailed it.

These game hens aren’t really game birds, nor do they come from over the Atlantic in Cornwall, England. Nor do they have an a Cornish accent, which if you’ve ever had the opportunity to talk with someone from Cornwall, you realize you might as well be talking to a Zulu.

Their accents are so thick I don’t think they understand each other and just use pantomime to get their point across. Anyway, they are some weird hybrid of something. Basically, think of them as a small chicken adequate for one serving. A dwarf chicken, so to speak.

You can cook them in the oven, following the below recipe — just put everything in a big pan and cover it with foil. Or you can be adventurous and do it old school, in a Dutch oven. Said Dutch oven is not really Dutch by the way.

Since there are five members of our tribe, we cook five hens naturally. Your mileage may vary. For this, we use a 14-inch Dutch oven, which, again, isn’t really from Holland.

Five cornish game hens 1 (32-ounce) container of chicken broth 2 cups of Uncle Ben’s rice Sauce: 1 stick of butter 1/2 jar of red currant jelly optional: a very fine bourbon. The amount is up to you Game hens are usually frozen, so you need to thaw them out. Rinse them and clean them off like you would any other chicken.

For the sauce, melt the butter and jelly over a very low heat. If you are feeling adventurous, add some bourbon. Note – it doesn’t take a lot of bourbon, maybe 1/2 a cup or so. But again, that’s up to you. Yes, you may taste the bourbon during cooking time. If you think you need more sauce, just add more butter/jelly/bourbon to your liking.
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We usually pour the sauce over the birds beforehand — just let it all marinate really well. Coat both sides. I somehow always end up doing this, as The Dress has this thing about raw chicken.

You can set the birds aside in the sauce and place in the refrigerator for a while. However, we’ve found it’s best to bring the birds back up to room temperature before cooking. Pour the chicken broth into the Dutch oven. Add the rice next and then place the hens breast side up on top of the rice. If you’ve got any sauce left over, pour that in as well.

If you’re using an oven, bake at 350 degrees. To check for doneness, internal temperature should be about 170 degrees.

For a 14-inch Dutch oven, we place 12 briquettes under the oven and 24 on top. Cooking time is about an hour, and you might have to refresh the coals toward the end.

The top of the birds will turn a dark brown/red color, which is what you want — don’t worry, you didn’t burn them.

And enjoy.