The Cornish Hen Adventure

Ever seen Cornish Hen listed on a menu?  Ever see them in the store? Ever wonder what they are all about. . . and just what makes them so small, anyway???  Have you ever just *seen* one???

Not to be confused with. . .

Cornish Hen is one thing Hubster and I have never eaten nor prepared before. . . so when we saw these

at the grocery store one day - the challenge was on!  They most certainly are little chicken-like fowl. . .

And at a loss as to how we wanted to try fixing them, we resorted to our favorite device - the smoker!  But before they could go in there, what should we put on them?  We finally decided on a combination of 2 Tbsp of Italian Seasoning and 2 Tbsp Pepper Orange Spice

mixed with 1/4 cup of extra-virgin olive oil.

Hubster massaged the mixture onto the washed birds, and even rubbed it under their skin (I have a real 'problem' with handling raw meat.  I just don't like to.  Thank goodness Hubster doesn't mind AND he likes to cook and blog with me!!).

Then out to the electric smoker they went.

After 4-1/2 hours with the smoker set at 230 degrees and we had something pretty darned special.

As there would be four of us for dinner that night (and two of us were light eaters), we opted to simply cut each hen in half lengthwise - then let the hardy-eaters eat whatever the light-eaters didn't want of their half.

Very tasty!!  I'm a white-meat kind of person, and it was tender, smoky, and very juicy.  I did try some of the leg meat and it was yummy too. . . but I did prefer the breast meat.  The fellas devoured everything but the bones.  We decided that Cornish Hens are definitely something that can be fixed again - and in many different ways.  But smoking them and serving them with Basic Risotto was definitely tasty, and a great introduction into the world of Cornish Hens!

Have a Cornish Hen kind of day ~

Robin Z