Stuffed Cornish Game Hens
Submitted by dmaband
New Orleans-style Cornish game hens stuffed with spinach, mushrooms, and vermouth cream, wrapped in bacon, and roasted with a white wine pan sauce. Masterchef-worthy dinner.
YIELD
8 servingsPREP
20 minCOOK
45 minREADY
60 minStraight out of a New Orleans masterchef’s kitchen, these stuffed Cornish game hens are the kind of dish that makes a dinner party unforgettable.
Boned hens get filled with a rich stuffing of blanched spinach, sliced mushrooms, dry vermouth, and cream, then wrapped in bacon and roasted until the skin turns golden and the whole kitchen smells incredible.
The pan sauce is built from the drippings, deglazed with white wine, and finished with a swirl of cold butter for that silky, restaurant-quality finish.
Chef Tips
- Ask your butcher to bone the hens for you. It saves serious time and frustration.
- Reduce the stuffing until it’s thick but still moist. Too dry and it crumbles when you try to stuff the birds.
- Swirl the butter into the sauce off the heat. Direct flame will break the emulsion and leave you with a greasy mess instead of a glossy sauce.
- Secure each hen with toothpicks and a bacon strip. The bacon bastes the bird as it cooks, adding smoky richness.
Ingredients
Directions
Stuffing: Heat the butter in a pan and add spinach, garlic, mushrooms and vermouth.
Cook over high heat for 3 minutes, then add the cream and reduce by one-third.
Add the bread crumbs and cook until thick but moist.
Hens: Spread the boned hens flat and season with salt and lemon juice.
Fill each with ½ cup stuffing and fold the meat together securing with toothpicks and a strip of bacon.
Baste the stuffed hens with clarified butter and then put them into a pan with the rest of the clarified butter and roast at 350℉ (180℃) for 45 minutes.
Serve with sauce.
Sauce: Reduce the drippings from the hens for 5 minutes over high heat.
After five minutes, discard any fat that’s in the pan and add wine to deglaze.
Scrape up any little bits adhering to the pan. Reduce for a minute or two.
Add cream, shallots, garlic, and green onion.
Cook for two minutes more, then remove the pan from the heat.
Off the heat, swirl in butter to finish the sauce.
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