Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: The Christie Curse;Mary Jane Maffini

Saturday, April 27, 2013

Make-ahead herb and lemon marinated Cornish hens

For years MJ's husband (and Victoria's father) has enjoyed bringing home friends, colleagues and clients for dinner. Sometimes unexpectedly. Sometimes when deadlines are tight. So it is not only the Boy Scouts who need to be prepared.

This recipe takes a bit of advance prep, but it saves time on the night and it has been a big hit. Now that we've experimented on two unsuspecting batches of dinner guests, it’s joined the ranks of our favorites. There will always be Cornish hens in the freezer from this point on. Depending on your guests’ appetites, each Cornish hen serves one person or two. Be prepared for one hen per person, but leftovers are great, if there are any.

The prep time for this is very quick. It only takes a few minutes to open the hens, mix the marinate and brown them. After that the hens do all the work.

You can easily adjust this recipe for two, four or whatever number of hens.

Ingredients

6 Cornish hens, flattened with backbones removed . Score the breastbone with a sharp knife on the INSIDE of the hen – makes it easier to flatten – but don’t cut all the way through.

Olive oil for browning hens

Marinade

1 cup of EVOO (don’t faint)

¾ cup white wine

Juice of two large lemons

6 cloves of garlic, slivered

1 large shallot, finely chopped

4 sprigs fresh thyme (you could use dried, but this is really worth it)

4 sprigs fresh rosemary

½ tsp dried chili flakes – I use mild New Mexican - but whatever you like

S & P to suit yourself

Directions:

Lay hens skin-side down in single layer in a glass dish. Mix marinade ingredients and pour over hens. Marinate overnight if you can, or even twenty-four hours. But even if you have only a half hour to marinate, they are still excellent.

After marinating, brown the hens, one at a time, in a large skillet.

Transfer to a large baking dish (or two). At this point, you can refrigerate covered for up to a day. Pour some of the remaining marinade around hens.

Preheat oven to 350. Bake for about an hour.

It's very nice served on a platter with rice.

Last weekend we served it with lots of vegetables because that suited everyone. MJ shared the spinach casserole recipe last year on MLK (click here to see that recipe) and we will be posting the Marinated Mushrooms in May.

We also liked this because, except for the baking dish (which could be your serving dish) we had no last minute dishes.

This spring we are still celebrating the arrival of The Christie Curse, our first book collector mystery. We're eagerly waiting for the cover of The Sayers Swindle, book two in the series, and can't wait to show you when it arrives. Maybe we should make ourselves this for dinner again. Hmmm.