Oh my goodness!! We had this for dinner last night, whith a roaster chicken instead of hens. This was unbelievable! I put some minced garlic in the cavity along with the lemons and rosemary. I put a mixture of 1/4c, butter, 1/2 tsp. minced garlic, juice from 1 quarter of the lemon and some dried crushed rosemary(I mashed this all together) and put in under the breast skin. It mad the breast meat super flavorful and tender. I used minced garlic instead of cloves, and it burnt during the roasting part(425) so if you ar doing the minced garlic, you might want to add part of the wine and broth mixture so that it wont burn. The gravy was delicious, I did however add a little cornstarch to thicken it up. Served this with Gourmet Sweet Potato Cassarole(on this site), Basic Yankee Bread Stuffing(on this site), Mashed Potatoes, Green beans, Mushrooms and Cranberries. I also did as someone suggested to put mushrooms into the juices the last 20 minutes of cooking. What a meal!
We loved the hens! I halved the recipe and roasted just 2. I used a roaster pan without the lid and found the time specified in the recipe was just right. Like others suggested, I added chicken broth to the garlic in the pan so the garlic wouldn't burn and that worked well. I also doubled the gravy as others suggested and that was a good idea. Great recipe - it's a keeper!
This is the best cornish game hen recipe I have ever found. It is absolutley wonderful. Since there are only two in my house, I made two games hens, but left the wine and broth the same (basically the sauce I kept the same) and it turned out perfectly. If I used four hens, I would double the sauce because when I boiled the sauce down it was perfect for two hens. ABSOLUTLEY WONDERFUL. Thank you for a new favorite, and very moist, game hen recipe...Shannon
Was actually very easy, and tasted great, BUT....I think you need to cook them a bit longer. (It could be my oven) Break the thigh open and check for doneness. Even though my thermometer read 181, it was still very pink down in the thigh area. Instead of a roasting rack, I cubed sweet potato and put the hens on top of them to roast. Mmmmmmmm! All of the juices from the hens, oil and lemons drizzled down on them and it was Scrumtious!
I searched for a long time for a Cornish Hen recipes since I had never made them before, and did I find a winner! It was so easy, flavorful, and juicy! I did make a few modifications, I used 2 hens since it's just my husband and I, In the cavity of each bird I put a quarter lemon, 2 cloves of garlic and 2 sprigs of fresh rosemary. I read the recipe wrong and actually rubbed 1 tbsp of olive oil on each hen, but still came out good. I then put 1 tbsp butter under the skin on each breast, along with 2 sprigs of the fresh rosemary. I sprinkled some poultry seasoning on each hen along with a lemon slice on the breast and then placed them in my roasting pan on top of cubed yukon gold potatoes. After roasting I took 2/3 c. of cheap pinot grigio, 2/3 c. chicken broth, and about 5 cloves of minced garlic and used that to pour over the hens and baste with. Holy cats was this great! My whole house smelt amazing, and the potatoes were the best I'd ever had! I loved how everything cooked all at once and all I had to do was throw together a salad. My husband raved about this recipe, and picked his hen clean. We loved it so much I'm going to be adapting this recipe to a roasting chicken tonight for dinner. Hope it comes out just as good. Thanks you for sharing a great recipe!
we loved this recipe. I used a whole 4 lb chicken instead of the cornish hens and it turned out great. I did not use the lemons as suggested (did't have them) so I stuffed the bird with a whole yellow onion quartered and dried rosemary again did not have fresh). I also doubled the white wine/chicken stock mixture. my only suggestion would be to put a little chicken stock in the pan with the cloves of galic at the start so the garlic will not burn.
I make this often. I always add extra rosemary and lemons for extra flavor. We like to use the garlic after to spread on bread!!
These were tasty! Very simple too- except I was short on time so I cut down on the garlic and didn't reduce the sauce. I also used dried rosemary and omitted the wine, just using extra broth and a little bit of apple juice. These were great for Christmas dinner.
Excellent recipe that I have made at least 6 times and always comes out perfect. Only two additional recommendations to the recipe is place a little softened butter with minced garlic on top of hen between skin and brest and add a little broth to pan before placing in oven to keep garlic from burning. Add what ever flavors your family prefers to cavity (onion slices, lemon wedges, garlic, etc.).
This was my first time making any kind of whole poultry (I know!) and the recipe couldn't have been easier. I definitely added some stock to the pan right away like other suggested and I'm glad I did - the garlic definitely would have burned. I almost tripled the sauce for two hens and had a little bit of sauce left over. Next time I'll definitely season the inside of the bird before stuffing it with lemon and rosemary.
