Thursday, March 5, 2015

Rock Cornish Game Hens

It's a mini chicken.  Very tasty, gives that roasted stuffed chicken taste in a smaller package.  A hungry teenager will be able to scarf down a whole game hen.  Older adults will be satisfied with a half a game hen.  I stuff them with supermarket stuffing mix jazzed up with a bit of sliced apple, some grapes (in season) or raisins (out of season), the game hen liver, and some chopped onion.  Rinse them with water, and rub them down, inside and out, with lemon, or orange, and oil.  Olive is good, plain old veggie oil is fine.  Then stuff them.  Roast at 350 for an hour, maybe an hour and ten.  Baste with pan juice or oil every so often.  Game hens are too small to get a cooking thermometer into so I rely on the old fashioned fork  test.  The breast should feel cooked to the fork and juices should run out.  Skin should have browned.  When in doubt, give 'em a little more time in the oven. 
   I make gravy from scratch.  When the bird goes in, I put the neck and gizzard and heart in water and bring it to a boil.  Add a bit of Bell's Poultry Seasoning, and simmer until the game hens are done.  Then pick the meat from the neckbones with a couple of forks, and chop the gizzard and heart up fine.  When the game hen[s] are done,  take them out of the roasting pan, put them on plate and let them rest a few minutes before carving them.  To the roasting pan, add some flour to the pan juices, as much as the juices will soak up.  Then add the broth from cooking the neck and gizzard.  And the neck meat and gizzard.  Put the roasting pan on the stove, medium heat and stir until the gravy thickens.  Taste and season as necessary.  Go easy on the salt.  Thyme is good, Bell's Poultry Seasoning is good, some pepper.  
   To do it right, you ought to have a veggie, peas, broccoli, squash, green beans.  With the stuffing you don't really need a starch. 
    Next day you can do a chicken soup.  Put all the chicken (game hen) bones and left overs in a pot with a lot of water.  Add a bay leaf, and some chopped onion.  Boil and then reduce to a simmer.  Give it four hours or so.  Then turn off the heat, let it cool enough to touch, and separate the bones from the broth.  Fingers work for this, it's a little messy, but you can do it.  Pitch the bones, put the meat back in the pot.  Add some veggies, peas, carrots, corn, anything you like.  Add some rice.  Reheat and cook long enough to get the rice soft and the veggies cooked. 
   I got three nice meals out of a single game hen this way. 

No comments: