They are really Cornish Game Hens, but some years ago, my wife Nancy and her evil sidekick, Nancy McKay, dubbed them Horny Game Hens and the name stuck.
Cornish game hens or Rock Cornish game hens is a variety of a broiler chicken crossed between the Cornish and White Plymouth Rock. The name is also a misnomer in that the birds can be either male of female, so not all are hens. They are raised to develop large breasts in a short amount of time, and they run about 2 ½ pounds each at 6 weeks of age.
Regardless of the name, the Cornish hens are fairly inexpensive, easy to prepare and a nice change of pace.
I was in Wal-Mart last week, searching for some different meal ideas and saw them in the frozen meat counter. I picked up a couple of the “Horny” Game Hens at $3.99 each and invited them to dinner in three days, as it takes about that long for them to defrost in the refrigerator.
I tried a slightly different recipe, but as usual, they were scrumptious.
Here’s how.
Pick up one game hen per person and there are usually leftovers. Let them defrost slowly in the fridge, but if you need them that day, put them in a pot of water for three or four hours to defrost.
Preheat the oven to 400, and combine 2 t Italian seasoning, 1 t garlic powder, 1 t salt, and ½ t black pepper in a bowl. Rub each bird thoroughly with olive oil, then sprinkle them with the seasoning mix inside and out. I then added a sliver or two of onion and a small piece of celery to each cavity and baked them for about 55 minutes (it depends on how large the birds are) until the centers reached 165 degrees and the skins were brown and crisp.. Let the hens rest for five or ten minutes and spoon with the drippings. Horny or not, they go perfectly with wild rice.
Horny (Cornish) Game Hens
2 Cornish game hens
2 t Italian seasoning
1 t garlic powder
1 t salt
½ t pepper
2 T olive oil
1 large slice of onion Partial stalk of celery
