poultry Archives - The Midnight Baker

Orange Ginger Cornish Hens

Judith Hannemann — Tue, 16 Jul 2019 23:00:59 +0000

Cornish hens with a tangy orange ginger flavor. Small chickens work with this too!

Any Poultry Works

Who remembers when frying chickens were 3 pounds and under? Heck, I can remember when they were 19 cents per pound–and that was the regular price–but I digress.

The original recipe called for poussins, which are very young and small chickens, I opted to use Cornish game hens in this orange Cornish hens recipe. Cornish hens are approximately the same size as a poussin. However, if you can find very small young chickens (and you can but it’s difficult) then by all means use them in this recipe. Regardless, any chicken parts will work here, they just need a longer cooking time.

Spatchcock Easily

Since you use small chickens or Cornish game hens in this recipe, the poultry is more or less cooked “whole,” and spatchcocked.

Spachcocking is removing the backbone and flattening out the bird. This isn’t an easy task if done with a knife–even a very sharp one. I know; I’ve tried. Believe it or not, I never owned a set of poultry shears so I treated myself to this pair. Well, this old bird (pun intended) found out what I’ve been missing all the years I didn’t have a pair in my kitchen. They work like a dream and if you love chicken as much as I do, then treat yourself to a pair.

The Gravy

All I can say is, “Oh my!”

The gravy is the best part of this orange ginger Cornish hen dinner. And even better, the gravy makes itself.

It grabs all the flavor from the juices, then slowly reduces in the final cooking time. Because it reduces, the flavors become very concentrated so there’s a definite citrusy flavor and the ginger intensifies that flavor as well.

This is one meal you’ll make often because the family is going to love this!

The Recipe

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Orange Ginger Cornish Hens

Easy to make Cornish hens and the gravy is to die for!

Prep Time25

Cook Time35

Marinate1 6

Course: Dinner, Main, Main Course

Cuisine: British

Keyword: Asian chicken recipe, cornish hen recipe, ginger chicken, orange chicken

Servings: 6

Calories: 543kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3 Cornish game hens
1 tbs honey
1 rounded tbs cornstarch
salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the marinade:

1 1/2 cups orange juice
3 large garlic cloves crushed
2 tbs olive oil
4 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs chopped sage plus extra leaves to garnish
2 tsp thyme leaves
1 tbs coarsely grated fresh ginger

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

First cut the backbone out of each Cornish hen. Place the birds, breast-side down, on a chopping board and, using a sharp pair of kitchen scissors or shears, cut along either side of the bone to remove completely. Turn over and flatten the hens by pressing down with your hand over the breast bone.
Combine all the marinade ingredients and place in a large, resealable freezer bag with the hens. Seal the bag and leave to marinate in the fridge for about 24 hours.
When you’re ready to cook, preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200C).
Take the birds out of the bag, reserving the marinade to make the sauce. Arrange them, breast-side up, in a large roasting tin and drizzle over the honey.
Place in the oven to roast for about 20 minutes. Measure the cornstarch into a small bowl, add the marinade and mix until smooth. Pour the marinade over the hens and return to the oven for a further 15 minutes.
Remove from the oven and cut each bird in half along the breast bone. Strain the juices left in the tin to make a sauce, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Serve half a hen per person, with some of the sauce spooned over.

Notes

May also be made with regular but small chicken parts. Large parts require a longer cooking time (around 50 minutes)

Adapted from Mary Berry.

Nutrition

*Post contains affiliate links

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Sticky Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 22 Jun 2019 23:00:16 +0000

An easy chicken recipe the whole family will love.

Tangy Chicken

Anyone who has followed me for a while knows how much I love chicken. For years I’ve been saying that I was a real “cheap date” because I’d rather have chicken than steak.

This sticky chicken recipe is one of the reasons I love chicken so much. This is really tasty and it uses ingredients you probably have on hand.

The flavor of the marinade gets deep into the chicken. You will be able to taste it’s fine and tangy flavor all the way down to the bone. That’s achieved with a very simple step that I’m going to recommend for any chicken that has to marinate.

Sticky Chicken Uses Simple Ingredients

As I mentioned before, this chicken recipe uses very basic ingredients that you likely have on hand already.

The only one you may have to buy would be the whole-grain mustard. I would imagine that you could just substitute plain old Dijon mustard for it, but the whole-grain variety has a much better flavor. I think you’ll like it so much that it will become a staple too.

Otherwise everything else is pretty common. I’m sure most folks have ketchup, honey and everything else right on their shelves.

Marinate: The Longer The Better

While the original recipe gives a minimum time of 30 minutes to let the chicken sit, the longer you leave it in the marinade, the better it will taste.

Right now I am going to recommend prepping this the day before. Pop it in the fridge and let it sit until you cook it the next day. You will not be sorry.

Now, the secret to getting the flavor throughout the meat is not only the longer period of marinating. This sticky chicken uses parts that are skin-on. In order to let the flavor migrate through the whole piece is to make shallow slashes in the skin. The cuts should be less than 1/4-inch deep. They must go through the skin and a little bit down into the meat itself. This is something I haven’t done before, but it’s something I intend to do from now on when I marinate any skin-on poultry.

The Recipe

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Sticky Chicken

Marinate this chicken overnight for fullest flavor

Prep Time15

Cook Time35

Marinate8

Total Time8 50

Course: Main, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken, chicken recipe, easy recipe

Servings: 6

Calories: 331kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

6 whole chicken legs or combination of thighs and drums

Marinade:

6 tbs ketchup
2 tbs tomato paste
2 tbs whole-grain dijon mustard
3 tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 tbs honey
1 clove garlic crushed

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Mix all marinade ingredients in a small bowl.
Take a sharp knife and make a couple of shallow slits on the top of the chicken legs (on the skin side). Place chicken in a large zipper freezer bag and pour in the marinade. Massage bag so marinade evenly coats chicken. Refrigerate at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (400 if using a convection oven). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
Place chicken on prepared pan, skin side up, and spoon remaining marinade evenly over chicken.
Bake for 30-35 minutes, until chicken is brown (it will singe around the edges, that’s what you want) and the juices run clear—165 degrees internally.

Nutrition

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Fruited Rice Stuffed Cornish Hens

Judith Hannemann — Sun, 18 Nov 2018 00:00:23 +0000

These fancy Cornish hens are the perfect holiday meal for empty nesters.

Great For Empty Nesters

If it’s just going to be the two of you at the holidays, a big spread is just not practical.

These festive Cornish hens just might be the solution. Even if you’re alone for the holidays, maybe you don’t want it to be just a “regular meal” day and want to do something a little special. That was the case with my husband and me, especially after he got sick. Since this is on a small scale, there’s no waste and not endless nights of leftovers.

This is also a good recipe to tuck away to save for small gatherings and dinner parties. It’s really fancy and makes a nice presentation while at the same time it’s quick cooking and very easy.

Versatile Stuffing

This is the perfect stuffing for these Cornish game hens. The bright notes of ginger and orange–not to mention the dried apricots–go so well with poultry. Any poultry that is. But that’s not where this ends.

The stuffing is also a great side dish. So why not class up an ordinary weekday meal of inexpensive chicken parts by serving this on the side? There’s nothing complicated about the preparation nor the cooking. It’s really very easy.

The ultimate is, this is also a good choice for going meatless. The pine nuts provide protein so it’s pretty complete. To make it vegan, just use vegan butter or even coconut oil (the unrefined kind that has a hint of coconut flavor).

A Little Addition

If you have any unsweetened shredded coconut, that is lovely included in the stuffing. Maybe about 2-3 tablespoons mixed in is a good amount.

The coconut gives this a more exotic and tropical flair. It’s not necessary and I do understand that coconut is not everyone’s fave (even though it is mine).

The Recipe

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Fruited Rice Stuffed Cornish Hens

These fancy stuffed Cornish hens are the perfect holiday meal for empty nesters.

Prep Time20

Cook Time50

Total Time1 10

Course: Main

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cornish hens, stuffed cornish hens

Servings: 2

Calories: 1415kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 Cornish game hens
2 tbs butter melted, for basting

Stuffing

1 cup cooked white rice jasmine or basmatti is a good choice
2 tbs diced dried apricots
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts sliced toasted almonds may be substituted
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tbs orange zest
3 tbs butter melted
1 tsp salt

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Mix all the stuffing ingredients together in a bowl.
Clean and dry the game hens. Stuff hens with the rice stuffing then baste the hens with half of the melted butter.
Roast for 30 minutes, then baste with the remaining melted butter. Roast an additional 15-20 minutes or until juices run clear.
Remove from oven and tent with foil. Let the hens rest 10 minutes.

Nutrition

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Stuffed Chicken Thighs

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 25 Aug 2018 23:00:32 +0000

These easy peasy sausage stuffed chicken thighs are so delicious they’ll be on your regular rotation!

Stuffed Chicken Made Easy

I love me some stuffed chicken, but like many, I find breasts hard to stuff. Mainly, it’s difficult to get the stuffing to stay in the chicken.

This recipe uses boneless, skinless thighs. Turns out that thighs are pretty easy to stuff because the removal on the bone make the perfect “pocket” for any filling! In fact, this may be my new go-to piece for stuffing since it’s so easy to do. I prefer that part anyway so it’s a perfect solution.

Choose A Mild Sausage

Just recently I was watching a lot of food history documentaries on YouTube and of course, YouTube comes up with suggestions of what to watch next. A lot of those suggestions were shows with Mary Berry.

For those who have never heard of her, she’s a British icon as far as cooking is concerned–and has even superseded the great Fannie Craddock (another British cooking icon) in my opinion. Anyway, Mary Berry’s approach to cooking has always been making good food in as little time as possible. This recipe comes from her, and it’s just wonderful.

Britain basically has all the same products we use here in the USA, but sometimes call them by different names. For instance, “icing sugar” is confectioner’s sugar and “aubergines” are eggplants. However one thing that’s very different there than it is here is sausage.

British sausage is more like bratwurst than it is our breakfast sausage or Italian sausage, so I had to adapt the recipe a bit. Mary Berry’s filling used quite a bit of herbs and spices which added flavors to the very mild British kind. So I cut out all that and just used the parsley and onion.

Great Tips

One little tip I picked up from watching this video was using honey to make sure things brown well–especially with short cook times.

You don’t use a lot, just a few drops will do. In fact, I doubt you’d even taste it.

I’ve noticed that things wrapped in bacon are generally overcooked by the time the bacon browns and brushing with a drop or two of honey (which the Brits call “runny honey”) does the trick. It also works for cooking chicken strips for stir fries that cook too quickly to brown. Just add about a teaspoon of honey and voila–lovely and golden.

This next tip comes from me–do yourself a favor and buy yourself an inexpensive kitchen scale. They’re small and come in handy for many things besides cooking. It’s absolutely necessary if you plan to cook some European baking recipes because they weigh everything. You’ll get more accurate results weighing than measuring in cups–which is especially true for flour.

Flour has a range of weights when measured by the cup because of differences in how the cup is filled, but 50 grams of flour is always 50 grams. Rose Levy Beranbaum advocated this years ago for the most foolproof way to bake. You won’t be sorry.

Watch The Video

The Recipe

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Stuffed Chicken Thighs

These easy sausage stuffed chicken thighs are so delicious they’ll be on your regular rotation. Bacon wrapped chicken has never tasted so good!

Prep Time10

Cook Time45

Total Time55

Course: Main

Cuisine: American

Keyword: bacon, chicken breast recipe, sausage, stuffed chicken

Servings: 8

Calories: 412kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

16 oz mild bulk breakfast sausage
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 tbs minced onion
8 slices bacon
8 boneless skinless chicken thighs
1 tbs honey

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment or foil.
In a large bowl, mix the sausage, parsley and minced onion. Divide into 8 equal portions and shape each into a log no longer than the length of the chicken where the bone was.
Place chicken skinned side down and open them out. Place a log in the center of each thigh where the bone was and fold the chicken around it.
Wrap each thigh in one strip of bacon, seam side under the chicken.
Place the chicken on the prepared pan and brush each thigh with the honey.
Bake for 35 minutes or until cooked through and the bacon is golden brown and crispy. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Nutrition

*Post contains affiliate links
*Adapted from Mary Berry

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Rosemary Garlic Cornish Hens

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 23:00:03 +0000

These quick and easy rosemary garlic Cornish hens are nice enough for guests, but great for family too.

Get Grilling

After a rather long and hard winter here in New York, I am so looking forward to outdoor cooking. The bleak and cold weather hung on through May and my heat actually came up Memorial Day weekend, so you better believe I am so happy that it’s warmer and I can do some BBQing!

These Cornish hens celebrated the maiden voyage of my new Weber Spirit over at my office. I’m a real poultry nut so I was really looking forward to making these.

With larger chickens, I either partially cook the pieces or cook them on the grill over indirect heat and just finish them off over direct heat. Since Cornish hens are small, they don’t have to be par-cooked or done over indirect heat. They cook quickly too, but it’s always best to use an instant-read thermometer to make sure. The thickest part of a game hen that’s split is funny enough, the breast. Make sure to check the temperature there.

Wonderful Flavors For Cornish Hens

Rosemary is a great herb to use with chicken. It really enhances the flavor.

Combining that with garlic and a hint of lemon takes it from great to totally awesome. The addition of fresh parsley gives the Cornish hens a slight earthiness too. I can’t say it enough; these flavor combinations are marvelous.

You do have to rub the “paste” all over the hens and let them sit in the fridge for at least one hour. It’s important not to cover them because you want the skin to dry out a bit so the herbs will adhere. The skin will also be crispier. Ideally, they should sit for about 3-4 hours. They will taste better the longer the marinade has time to work it’s magic.

Grease The Grates

The last thing you want to have happen is the skin sticking to the grill grates and tearing–especially if you are making this for guests! Therefore, it’s important to oil the grill grates right before placing the Cornish hens (or anything else you don’t want sticking) immediately before placing the food on the grill.

I actually got away from doing this quite a while ago. My answer is to use non-stick BBQ grill pans. Some have “wells” where the grease will collect so it keeps the grill clean and pretty much eliminates the need for the grill’s grease catcher. Some don’t have that feature, but it still keeps the grill clean and prevents sticking. The one you see in my pics I got off QVC. It’s the Copper Chef brand. What I really like about this pan is that the design will automatically give you the cross-hatch marks (quadrillage if you want to get fancy) without having to do the 10 o’clock then 2 o’clock turns.

The Recipe

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Rosemary Garlic Cornish Hens

These quick and easy rosemary garlic Cornish hens are nice enough for guests, but great for family too.

Prep Time1 10

Cook Time15

Total Time1 25

Course: Chicken, Main Course

Cuisine: American

Keyword: cornish hen recipe, cornish hens

Servings: 4

Calories: 575kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

2 cornish game hens cut in half

Marinade:

1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs fresh lemon juice
1 tbs chopped fresh rosemary
1 tbs chopped fresh parsley
1 tbs chopped fresh garlic
2 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Instructions

Puree the marinade ingredients in a blender or food processor.
Coat the cornish hens with the marinade and chill for at least 1 hour.
Preheat your grill to medium (450-500 degrees F). Brush the grates with oil or use a non-stick grill pan (like you see in my pics).
Grill skin side up, brushing with any remaining marinade for about 10 minutes, covered. Turn the hens and grill (covered) for an additional 10 minutes, being careful that they do not burn. Internal temp should be 165 degrees F.
Remove from grill, tent with foil and let them rest for 5 minutes.

Nutrition

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Crusty Parmesan Chicken

Judith Hannemann — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 23:00:49 +0000

Flavorful cheese gives this baked parmesan chicken a super flavor.

Great Flavors

There are some really great flavors in this parmesan chicken coating.

This chicken coating is a minor variation of the coating in my Italian Lemon Herb Pork Chops, but this one has more cheese and herbs.

The coating is so flavorful and crunchy this chicken is sure to be a hit with the family.

Any Chicken Parts Will Do

You can use thighs and drumsticks as I did here, or bone-in breasts.

I just have a lot of thighs and drumsticks in my freezer because they are often on sale. Curiously, bone-in breast has not been on sale for quite a long time and breast portions would be very good in this recipe.

Boneless skinless breast would work in this parmesan chicken too, but you will have to reduce the cooking time by approximately half. Boneless skinless breast would be better suited to sauteeing because they’d cook very fast. If you plan to cook them that way, then use a meat mallet to pound them down to about 1/4-inch thickness before coating with the crumb mixture.

Parmesan Or Romano

I used Parmesan cheese in the coating, which is the classic cheese to use. However, if you want a bolder flavor, substituting the Parmesan cheese with Romano cheese is a good choice.

You might even want to experiment a bit and use Asiago cheese. That will give a very bold and distinctive flavor to the coating.

Just make sure you use a hard cheese. Softer cheeses, while tasty, may not work because they melt better.

The Recipe

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Crusty Parmesan Chicken

Flavorful cheese gives this baked parmesan chicken a super flavor.

Prep Time20

Cook Time1

Total Time1 20

Course: Chicken, Everyday Meals

Cuisine: American

Keyword: chicken recipe, parmensan chcken

Servings: 6 -8

Calories: 630kcal

Author: Judith Hannemann

Ingredients

3-4 lbs chicken parts
2 tbsp olive oil
3 eggs
1 tbsp water
1 cup flour

SEASONED BREAD CRUMBS

1 cup plain breadcrumbs
1 cup panko breadcrumbs
2 tbsp dried parsley -OR- 4 tbs FRESH chopped parsley
2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp basil
1 tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
½ cup shredded Parmesan or Romano cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Coat a large baking sheet with the 2 tbs olive oil.
Beat the eggs with the 1 tbs water.
Mix all the seasoned bread crumb ingredients.
Dredge chicken as follows: Dredge in flour, shaking off excess. Then dip in the egg mixture, letting excess drain back in the bowl, then coat with crumb mixture. Place chicken skin side up on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining chicken.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until juices run clear and chicken is golden brown.

Nutrition

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