Sunday, April 21, 2013

America's Test Kitchen Roast Cornish Game Hen with Cous Cous Stuffing

Game hens are so perfect for people that dine alone. They are easy to work with, portioned perfectly, and often on sale at a lot of grocery stores. This recipe from America's Test Kitchen's Cooking for Two cookbook is perfect for dining alone or for sharing with someone. Tom finds these little hens quite frightening, so he won't even be in the area when I am making them. But trust me, they are absolutely delicious. That being said, I cut this recipe in half.

recipe

recipes

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees and lets gather our ingredients.

ingredients
You will need a game hen, of course, some broth, balsamic vinegar, cinnamon, ginger, parsley, brown sugar, lemon, shallot or onion, cous cous, currants or cranberries, and pistachios or pine nuts.

toasty pine nuts
The first thing to do is to toast the pine nuts or pistachios. Pay no attention to my dirty stove...

shallots
Chop up the onion or shallot.

spice pals
Measure out your cinnamon and ginger.

ready for cous cous
Measure your broth, cranberries, and chop up your lemon. Prepping is the most important part of a successful meal. If you have everything ready you don't have to scramble.

shallots
Cook the shallots over medium with the cinnamon and ginger for about 3 minutes.

this smells awesome
Stir in the cous cous and cook for about 2 minutes, this smells so good you won't believe it!

getting good
Stir in the broth and bring to a simmer, get it off the heat and cover it with a lid.

lid stand in
That is a lid in my house, Corelle has many functions.

fluffed
Once that has hung out for about 5 minutes get it into a bowl and fluff with a fork.

cous cous stuffing
Stir in the nuts, cranberries or currants, lemon juice, and parsley. Add some salt and pepper and you are ready to move on to your hen.

nice rack
Line a cookie sheet with foil and place a rack on it. I am just using one of my cookie cooling racks.

hen
Behold the little hen that terrifies my husband.

stuffed
Stuff that bugger with your cous cous stuffing.

tied up
Cross the legs and tie them together. I have always just used embroidery thread to tie up my chickens and hens, I don't own butcher's twine. I am sure that there is some horrifying chemical in there but so far I have suffered no problems from doing this. Season the outside of your bird well and make sure it is breast side down on your rack. Put the hen in the oven for about 25 minutes.

balsamic glaze ingredients
While the hen is in the oven we can make the balsamic glaze. I made almost the full amount of this glaze because I knew I would love it. Measure out the ingredients.

glaze
Get the ingredients in a small sauce pan over medium heat and let them simmer for about 2 minutes. It will thicken and reduce down.

glaze reserved
Reserve some glaze for serving.

getting golden
After 25 minutes pull the hen out and brush with glaze. Flip the hen over.

flipped
Brush the other side with the glaze as well. Put them back in the oven for about 20 more minutes. Having an instant read thermometer is a really good idea if you are making whole birds like this.

brushed
Crank the oven up to 450 degrees and pull the hen back out and give it one more glaze. Put the hen back in for about 10 minutes or until your instant read thermometer says 160.

balsamicly delicious
Get the bird on a cutting board and give him one more balsamic bath with the glaze you reserved. Don't be alarmed if the hen looks a little over cooked, it is just the darkness of the balsamic.

America's Test Kitchen Roast Cornish Game Hen with Cous Cous Stuffing
I served this up with some asparagus and it was absolutely delicious and not nearly as hard as I had thought it would be. It is all about timing and making sure you have everything prepped and ready to use when you need it.

10 comments:

  1. I always find America's Test Kitchen recipes to be awesome. this looks great! :)

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  2. Yumm-O, I really like this recipe and it's a certain winner at my house. (cutting bird made me lol)

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    1. haha I didn't even notice that :) I fixed it :)

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  3. What a gourmet and delicious looking meal!

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  4. It looks like a plate from a restaurant! I too love the little hens. I laughed at your description of 'they frighten Tom'...made my day!! :)

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  5. Such a fancy and delicious meal full of awesome ingredients :D

    Cheers
    Choc Chip Uru

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  6. What a lovely meal! Totally the perfect size for one or two people!

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  7. A meal that can only be described by the word, perfection! Blessings dear. Catherine xo

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  8. That balsamic glaze is absolutely gorgeous! I keep reading everyone's rave reviews of America's Test Kitchen and this recipe tells me I need to get on the ATK boat asap :)

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  9. Beautiful! I like cornish because it's perfect for my family!

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