Cornish Game Hens Canzanese

Rich and delicious - by far my favorite thing is how the pancetta in the bird sauce connects with the prosciutto in the simple salad. We used dried cherries for the currants/pomegranate which worked well - and dried pepper flakes for the chilis. An excellent dinner for two. Game hens are easier to get cooked through because of their smaller size - which makes those in our family who have a difficult time with the slightest underdone birds happy!

I find these instructions incredibly vague. You’re telling me to put the chicken into the fry pan skinside down but the whole chicken is covered with skin. Did you mean breast side down? Also, when you’re telling me to remove the breast pieces, was I supposed to spatchcock these chickens, because now I’m having to get in and cut hot chicken like a surgeon with asbestos. It’s ridiculous. These were instructions I’m a little annoyed.

Roasted in oven 425 degrees 45 minutes to internal temp 165 Lardo Fat/butter,garlic melted on stove, spices and herbs added rubbed on hens before roasting.

Wow. Fabulous. Brined the hens for an hour. Cooking times perfect. Wife loved it and she generally hates cornish hens.

I didn’t see a step for draining the pancetta fat, but the quantity was enormous, so I drained it after browning the meat. That and the butter! So I made less sauce by adding less butter but it was delicious.

At the end I found that the hen quarters weren’t cooked through and had to leave it simmering for at least another 15 mins, at which point the wine seemed to have cooked off and I was left with a slightly bitter butter sauce- really recommend double checking done-ness before adding the butter and second splash of wine.

The picture looks like pomegranate seeds were used, not fresh currants. Personally I love a salad with pomegranate seeds, arugula and shaved parmesean.

This is a quick easy way to cook a game hen. The meat was so succulent. Will make this again. The drippings would make a great pan sauce that could be changed up based on what spices are at hand.

Step 3: ...Meanwhile, make the salad: combine the prosciutto,... so does the prosciutto get fished out of the pan? Note that the ingredient list implies the interchangeability of "lardo, pancetta or prosciutto" which was added in Step 1.

Made this during the quarantine 2020.... so tasty! Made some stock too. One thing - had to look up how to quarter a Cornish Hen (see YouTube ...quartering a chicken as there wasn’t one for hens. https://youtu.be/DBb-Q9OqL0Q )

I didn’t have lardo so I used chopped bacon, removed from pan before adding chicken, then put the drained chopped bacon in the salad instead of prosciutto. Used pomegranate seeds like the photo. Other than that, I followed the written recipe and the hen turned out very moist, with a dab of spicy butter sauce. Delicious.

In the picture, the salad has pomegranate seeds in it not currants and I think that would be equally delicious.

Wow!

I bought a pair of game hens a couple of weeks ago with the intention of doing them the same old baked in the oven way. Instead, I did this recipe and boy am I glad I did.

Very, very easy and oh so tasty. Just plain wonderful. I have a folder of regular recipes, and this one now resides there. I highly recommend it,.