by Sheila Connolly
You do know
that's just a fancy name for a chicken, right? And it's not even always a
female chicken. The USDA describes it as
"a young immature chicken (less than five weeks of age), weighing not more
than two pounds ready-to-cook weight." It is descended from the Cornish
breed of chicken and some other unspecified breed (tell me the last time your
supermarket included the breed of chicken on their label). It grows fast. And markets charge more for it than for its
full-grown relatives which took longer to raise. Go figure.
It's all in the marketing.
But there
are those of us here who are empty-nesters, and cooking a whole chicken means
eating chicken three times in a week (and it's never quite the same after
you've frozen it). Don't get me wrong—I
love to cook chicken, and I love having the leftover meat handy because it's so
versatile. But sometimes you want small
and simple, and obviously a two-pound birdie is going to cook quickly, which
makes it a fast and easy meal for two. A two-pound game hen works well for two
adults with normal appetites, even with a little help from the cats.
That's a two-pound bird |
You can do
anything with your tiny chicken that you can do with a bigger one—just
faster. It's interesting how many
recipes for this critter call for lemon juice or vinegar, and often lemon
peel. Here's a slightly lemony version
that includes tarragon.
LEMON
TARRAGON CORNISH GAME HEN
One 2-pound
Cornish Game Hen
½ stick
(1/4 pound) unsalted butter, softened (not melted)
2 Tblsp
finely chopped shallot
1 Tblsp
grated lemon zest
1 Tblsp
chopped fresh tarragon (you can substitute dried)
½ tsp salt
Black
pepper to taste
Preheat the
oven to 375 degrees
Rinse the
hen, split it, and remove the backbone with shears.
In a bowl,
mix together the butter, shallot, lemon zest, tarragon, salt and pepper (I've
found that wearing latex gloves helps—then you can just massage the mixture
over your bird).
Rub the
butter mixture on both sides of your hen pieces, and place in a shallow baking
pan. Sprinkle a little more salt and
pepper over the top.
Roast in
the middle of the preheated oven until the hen is cooked through and the skin
is a golden brown—it should take about 30 minutes.
Feel free
to experiment with other herbs and spices!
New York Times Paperback Bestseller! |
Sheila, you need a dog. Seriously, I *never* have leftover meat.
ReplyDeleteI did not realize that Cornish Game hens are just young chickens. I always thought they were some special little breed of chicken. Well! In that case, I'm more inclined to buy a regular chicken!
~ Krista