Game Hens In The Montana Rain

posted November 13, 2007
by Sarah Christine Bolton, The Savvy Slow Cooker

My family used to go on long camping trips in the Montana mountains. We would load up our ancient travel trailer with fishing tackle, tents, and water, and pull it up old logging roads until we found the perfect camping spot, usually beside a “crick” as creeks are called in the west. Besides the rainbow trout that we caught, the best meal my mom would whip up was Cornish Game hens and cornbread. Something about the idea of a tiny, individual chicken was fascinating to me as a child.

One cold, rainy fall day, we were camping and my grandparents came to visit us for the day. My mom crammed several game hens into a rusted pan, seasoned them with salt and pepper, and slid them into the propane oven. A pan of cornbread followed. As the rain drizzled against the roof of the trailer, we pulled tender meat off the bones and soaked up the juices with crispy cornbread.

As a child, I honestly thought Cornish game hens were baby chickens, a sort of veal of the chicken world. Luckily, that isn’t the case, otherwise I might not be able to enjoy them. There seems to be a little confusion about who originally bred White Rock hens and Cornish hens and when it happened (either 1955 or 1965), but the original intention was to breed a small chicken with mostly white meat suitable for a single serving.

Since those camping trips, I’ve cooked them only a couple of times. Once for my husband-to-be, who was concerned that the hens miniature size wouldn’t provide enough sustenance for him. However, once he realized that he could eat an entire game hen (plus whatever I didn’t eat of mine), he was sold on the idea.

When it came time to figure out the first recipe I wanted to cook in my new crock pot, I considered several factors. Should I keep it simple, maybe some sort of stew or soup? That felt too simple, too crock pot cliché. Maybe I should do something fancy, like scallops and asparagus. But then I was afraid my elaborateness would backfire and I’d be stuck writing a column about what not to cook in a crock pot. So then, I simply opened my freezer, and saw them: two little game hens, sitting silently in the door. And I thought, why not? Game hens are definitely a bit out of the ordinary, but something I was very familiar with.

So here it is, my very first recipe on CDKitchen. If you’ve never tried game hens before, this is the perfect time to pick a couple up and pop them in your slow cooker. They are actually fairly inexpensive.

Cornish Game Hens Recipe
http://www.cdkitchen.com/

Serves/Makes: 4
Ready in: > 5 hrs

* 2 Rock Cornish hens (about 16 oz. each)
* 1 clove garlic, sliced in half PLUS
* 2 cloves garlic, diced
* 1 red onion, thinly sliced
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 1/2 teaspoon pepper
* 1/4 teaspoon chili powder
* 2 tablespoons olive oil
* 2 cups sugar snap peas
* 2 cups baby carrots
* 2 teaspoons salt
* 2 teaspoons pepper
* 2 teaspoons rubbed sage

Rinse hens and pat dry. Insert half a garlic clove and one slice of red onion into cavity of each hen. Rub hens with salt, pepper, and chili powder. Drizzle olive oil over hens; rub oil into spices with fingers to create a paste.

Place sugar snap peas, remaining sliced red onion, baby carrots, salt and pepper, sage, and diced garlic on bottom of crock pot. Cover and cook on LOW for 5-6 hours, until hens are tender and juices run clear. (I usually test the hens by twisting the drumstick; if it twists easily, the meat is done.)

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