Honey-Orange Cornish Game Hens

Submitted by EdsGirlAngie

"These are delicious little hens with a buttery honey-orange glaze that makes them nice and crispy on the outside, and tender and juicy on the inside. This is a nice dinner to have with that special someone, served with a rice pilaf and a simple veggie dish."

 

• Ready In: 1hr 6mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 2

ingredients

• 2 Cornish hens
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1⁄2 teaspoon allspice
• 1⁄2 orange, cut in quarters
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup honey
• 1⁄2 cup butter
• 1⁄2 cup thawed orange juice concentrate

directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
2. Mix together salt, basil and allspice.
3. Sprinkle mixture inside and outside of Cornish hens.
4. Place 1/4 orange in each hen and place them in a roasting pan.
5. Add water to pan.
6. Over low heat, simmer together honey, butter and orange juice concentrate until thickened.
7. Drizzle about half the mixture over Cornish hens and roast uncovered for about 25 minutes.
8. Roast for another 25 minutes or until juices run clear and hens are not pink inside, basting with the rest of the honey-orange sauce after 10 minutes.

Reviews

[Mark Kovach]

I did a serious spin off of this receipe and it came out wonderful. I omited the spices totally. I cut the hen in half and with a heavy knife flattened out the half-bird. I prepared some chicken stuffing and put a one cup mound under each half of the hen. I rubbed the halves with butter then roasted it in a flat pan at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. The stuffing soaked up all the chicken drippings so if you're worried about fat this isn't the receipe for you. But YUM.... After 40 minutes I basted the halves with the glaze and roasted for another 10 minutes. Served with some parsley potatoes and white/yellow sweet corn mix. Totally delicious.

 

[Troop Angel]

These were good...the meat had a good flavor and was really tender. The skin wasn't as good, but I think that was because of the allspice...I don't care for the taste of it, so I probably should have left it out. I think my roasting pan was smaller, because 2 cups of water came up halfway on my birds, so the top of them got really brown and crispy, while the bottoms just soaked in water. I will cut down on the water next time. But I will make this again!!!

 

[Crazycook in PA]

I thought this was good. I didn't have any orange juice concentrate so I just used juice from some oranges. I didn't put quite as much honey or butter in the sauce as I thought it was plenty sweet. That and the fact that I didn't use concentrate, the sauce never thickened up. I still basted the hens with it quite a few times. I baked the hens for 30 minutes and then turned them over and baked for another 45 minutes. They were nicely brown and crispy and juicey.