Rock Cornish Game Hens

Absolutely I would do this again!! I used to make them, and tried to make stuffing etc, that never really worked out. I haven’t thought of them in years. I saw someone posted on the Cast Iron Cooking group, so I decided to pick some up and try them again. I like them better than cooking a whole chicken, plus they look great on a plate. Turns out there is more meat on them than I recall, so these 2, though they look small and inviting were too big for one person. (Yes, I did eat all of mine of course!)

I didn’t stuff them, rather, I mixed some rice, dry stove top stuffing mix, half a can of cream of mushroom soup, a hand full of raisons, and just enough chicken stalk to make it moist. The chicken will produce stock too, so you don’t want to have it too moist going into the oven.

Season the hen with kosher salt, pepper and smoked paprika, or what ever you prefer.

Heat up your cast iron. I used a BSR chicken frier. It was too small to do both hens together, so I did them separately. Right before you put the hen in, add olive oil. then sear the hen on both sides.

Put the stuffing mixture on the bottom, add the hens on top, cover and place in 350 degree preheated oven. I checked them after an hour, they were cooked, but wanted them really tender so I turned heat to 425 for 15 more minutes, removed the cover for 5 minutes to brown the skin… (could have been browner but we were hungry!)

Stuffing was great. Hens were very tender and moist and more meat than I anticipated! Better then roasting a whole chicken in my opinion!