Cornish Game Hens 101

Before you start thinking that I’ve abandoned you and turned to the dark side of gourmet cooking with weird la-di-da ingredients like Cornish Game Hens and celery roots, let me explain. First of all, a Cornish Game Hen is really just like a mini chicken. They’re about 1/3 the size of a normal or even a young chicken, but really, besides the fancy name, that’s all there is to it – they’re smaller. And cheaper. And! Because they’re so mini, they are the perfect portion if you’re cooking for one. The dark side’s not so bad, is it?
So now that we’ve gotten a few things straight, lets move on to what exactly I did with my Cornish Game Hens (besides name them Larry and Link). I stuffed them. With stuffing. Cornbread stuffing. It was a classic combination and killed two birds with one stone (seriously, pun so not intended) – one bird being my craving for homemade chicken stock which would come from the remains of the roasted hens, and the second proverbial bird being the fact that I crave stuffing constantly. Year round, in fact. Which does not make the fact that Thanksgiving is still on the safe side of 3 months away any easier to bear. So I justified the stuffing with the stock and got to work.
I decided to go with an apple-cornbread stuffing similar to what we usually have on thanksgiving, minus the Mrs. Cubinson box – seriously, if ever there was an unlikely gourmand… I wanted to keep things simple and only use ingredients that I’d probably have around anyways – especially the herbs that are growing on our patio which were probably the best investment I’ve made in a long time.
I chose rosemary as the most prominent herb and sprinkled in a little thyme but really, the rosemary-apple combination stole the show. If you hate rosemary, as some people do, I think sage would be an equally delicious substitution and one that I want to try soon. Because I was using rosemary in the stuffing I decided to make an herb butter out of it, as well, to slather all over the bird as it cooked. It was really delicious and pretty simple.
I prepped the bird in the same way I prep my chickens – herb butter under the skin, salt and pepper, and more herb butter on top. The stuffing was really just a lot of chopping and some fun hand-mushing it all together. And then some stuffing. And if you’re not a fan of eating stuffing that was cooked inside the bird, no problem – you can always just spread it out into a casserole dish and bake it separately – it will be just as good and even better for lunch the next day. It really was so easy I can’t believe we’ve relied on Mrs. Cubinson all these years…

Cornish Game Hens with Cornbread Stuffing

For the Cornbread Stuffing:
About 12 oz. of cornbread or 1 ½ cups
1 medium onion, copped
1 celery stalk, chopped
2 granny smith apples, chopped
½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped
¼ cup chicken stalk
2 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons or 3 stems of rosemary leaves, chopped fine (half this amount if using dried))
1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

1. Melt butter in sauté pan over medium heat. Add onions and celery and sauté until onions are translucent and celery is tender, about 5-7 minutes
2. Meanwhile, in a big bowl, crumble cornbread and add all other ingredients, mixing together with your hands or a big spoon.
3. Once onions and celery are ready, add to all other ingredients in bowl and mix well.
4. Let cool and stuff into hens (about ½ cup stuffing in each hen), spreading any leftovers into a baking dish and bake, covered at 375 degrees for about 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 15 minutes or until top is golden brown.



For the Hens:
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cornish game hens usually come in packs of two.
1. Just salt and pepper them the day before if you can and refrigerate overnight.
2. Right before you stuff (or not) them and put them in the oven, rub an herb butter of your choice all over and under the skin if you have the stomach for it.
3. Roast them for about 45 minutes, until the skin is golden and the juices run clear when cutting between the thigh and the breast.