Cheap Recipe: Rock Cornish Game Hen

For a printable version of this recipe and complete ingredients listing, click here.

The spices on the skin will darken while the meat inside stays tender, moist and delicious!

A recent shopping trip to ALDI landed me two beautiful Rock Cornish game hens for only $1.99 apiece. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with them, but at that price, I knew I’d figure something out!

Last weekend was so busy for my family, I decided what we needed was a good Sunday night chicken dinner to cap it off. These birds (about 20 ounces each)were ready to go in the oven after only five minutes’ prep time!

If you look closely, you can see the cuts I made in the celery stalks to allow flavor to escape.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Chop a couple of celery ribs into 3- or 4-inch-long stalks; slice stalks partially through in a few places to allow flavor to escape without compromising the size of the stalks. Core an apple (I used a Red Delicious) and slice into 1/4-inch-thick wedges.

Remove the hens from packaging, being careful to drain as much liquid out of them as possible before placing them in a glass baking dish. (A 9″ x 12″ pan held my two birds quite comfortably and allowed heat to circulate evenly between them.) There will still be liquid that escapes into the pan while you stuff them; that is okay.

Make sure any giblets or innards are removed from inside of chicken (sometimes they will be in a little bag inside; sometimes the birds are already cleaned out before you buy them). Stuff

"Hello, my baby, hello my darlin', hello my ragtime gal..."

half of the celery and apples into each bird, simply inserting the pieces in side-by-side. The great thing about this method is that because all of the stuffing pieces are long slices, you don’t really have to worry about tying up the bird’s legs or stuffing falling back out during cooktime. And any recipe that saves you steps is bound to make cooking a homemade dinner seem less daunting in the future!

Stuffed, spiced, and ready to bake...

Try to separate skin from chicken where you can, squirting lemon juice between the two layers. If you can’t get them separated, it’s not a big deal–just coat the outside of the skin with lemon juice instead.

Sprinkle the game hens with about 1 teaspoon thyme, 1 teaspoon paprika and 1 teaspoon garlic powder (total amount between 2 birds).

Place the uncovered pan in oven; Bake approximately 55-65 minutes, or until inserted meat thermometer reads 180 degrees. Baste hot juices over hens if desired, and serve immediately.