MangiaMore: CORNISH hen

RER 4.15.13

I was gifted a cornish hen; a cute 1.78 lb game cornish hen, basically a mini chicken. It had been purchased, frozen, thawed, and I had no clue. My mom quickly described the recipe she used once for this little gamey fowl, but when the time came to make the small bird, it was lost. And really, I had no clue. So we stumbled on this Emeril recipe and so began our fowl play.

RER 4.15.13

Speaking of fowl, the recipe required spatchcocked hens. Right, that is exactly what I thought...spatchcocked? Again, I had no clue. So we checked out the below video to teach us how to basically butterfly this baby cornish hen.

It was easy (I guess, I let my boyfriend take charge), but it was not pretty.

Of course we were not as elegant as the fine Emeril nor did we have all the same ingredients, but we made the recipe our own. It was fun scrounging around to see what we could use and what we had. We deffo squeezed soy sauce out of extra packets from our last Chinese Food take out, and threw some dried rosemary on the second after we tossed our cornish hen in the oven.

RER 4.15.13

Despite our loose interpretation of the recipe, and limited supplies (NOTE: one cornish hen is not sufficient sustenance for two not so small people, so be prepared), I thought the cornish hen turned out delicious. It was sweet and luxurious, moist and flavorful. The added rosemary at the end was really potent and beautiful, making the dish feel fresh and fragranced, which I really liked. The sweet and salty, with the strong rosemary, made me think of spring and dinner parties. We already decided we would love to do this recipe again... but next time, we need at least two hens.

RER

4.16.13

JAR 4.15.13