Should i brine cornish hens

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Four and a half hours before you want to serve, remove wrapping and any bags of organs from the cavity of each bird. You may want to do this in the sink. With kitchen shears , cut along one side of the back bone of each bird, and up the center of each breast to make four halves.

Place the birds in the container you located above. Pour the cooled salt water over the birds. The birds must be completely submerged. If the birds are floating up, you can put a weight on them, such as a plate, to keep them under the water, or you may even need to make more salt water! It all depends on your container.

Now, put the entire mess into the fridge for two hours, and let those babies soak up the salt water. After the hens have had a nice long bath, take them out of the fridge. Spread your onion slices in the bottom of a 9 X 12 baking dish. Pat the hen halves dry with a paper towel. Nestle them side by side atop the onions in the pan.

Let them sit on the counter for 45 minutes to an hour to come to room temperature. Gradually whisk in olive oil. Set aside. Liberally apply some of the mixture to the birds with a brush or spoon. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes. Baste again with the mixture. Bake another 15 minutes. This will take about one hour and 15 minutes. Remember to save the bones for broth. Pat yourself on the back for all your hard work!

That was a lot. Smoking a turkey this year? Check out this awesome post on how to smoke a turkey the best way! Clarks Condensed provides uplifting and motivating information to share the joys of home and family living through parenting and pregnancy advice, easy DIY tutorials, recipes, and more — all with a frugal twist. Read more Katie is a Colorado-native, BYU graduated, and most importantly, wife to one and mother to three beautiful boys.

She is passionate about sharing her experiences with others - especially about pregnancy, breastfeeding, cooking, and crafts. She is currently training to be a Certified Lactation Educator. She loves spending time with her family and helping others find joy in family life. Made this tonight with roasted potatoes and book choy with shiitake.

It was very juicy and had good flavor. So make sure you only brine it hours. I will definately make this recipe over and over. We will use this recipe on every bird we cook!!

Thank you for sharing. I made these Christmas day and I have been dreaming about them ever since! I bought some young whole chickens hoping to recreate this with more left over. Do you have a recipe that transfers to a little bit bigger bird?

My comments should have been posted on Thanksgiving Day but we were too fat and happy to type! In this crazy pandemic year, Thanksgiving was just my husband and me so I jumped on a sale for Cornish hens and then stumbled upon this recipe.

And so is my Mr.! Did it react with the brine? I would love to use what I have of possible. Looking forward to trying it, testing it on the inlaws for the holidays. Thanks for your help! Year 2 using this recipe for our small Thanksgiving of five.

Thank you so much for this and I look forward to continue using this in our still budding traditions! I cooked them on my Traeger pellet grille and I did 3 not 2 Cornish Hens. They were the best! I will always cook my Hens this way with this brine and next time I might even try the oven!

Absolutely phenomenal! I ran out of time so they only brined for 6 hours but are so juicy and no need to baste when cooking! So delicious! Thank you for a fabulous recipe! My first time making Cornish game hen and they turned out so good! Thank you! I think you should be okay to do the same brining. For a chicken, you may need a little bit more cooking time. You could just use regular pepper.

I made these for our group of 12 yesterday. Everyone loved having their own baby chicken. The chickens were moist and so flavorful. Thanks for recipe!! How long did you cook them for? Please help! Most recipes tell you to rinse the birds after brining. Tried this today but only used 2 TBS of sugar.

Turned out so delish!! Not sure why I never thought to do this as I brine my chicken breast and pork chops. Alton Brown has a very informative video on how brining works.

No need to rinse. The only change we made was to add a teaspoon each of rosemary and fennel to the brine. Left it in the brine for almost a day before cooking. Came out very juicy. Thank you for the recipe. If I recall doing so reduce the cooking time a little and it might also reduce brining time a little since you have cut into the hen allow a little easier brine penetration.

A half also seems appropriate if you had lots of sides potentially. If using this recipe with four birds, should you double the brine or just put the birds in a container that the liquid covers everything?

Moist, extremely flavorful. So dang good! Thank u! If you just right click on the page you should be able to press print. Just have it print the first three pages. I made 2 Cornish Game Hens last night in your brine, and I will use this from now on!

Thanks for sharing! My husband, my sons, me…we all really liked this! No other spices were necessary. Hi, Ooo the looks is Amazing.