Cornish Game Hens - for next weekend's smokefest


 
Mike Shook

Mike Shook

TVWBB Fan
Next weekend I am throwing four rock cornish game hens on the WSM, and I had hoped to adapt Chris's Hot & Fast Chicken recipe for the purpose. But I am frankly scared of that higher temp / fast cook time..... if a full chicken takes 30 minutes / flip / 15-30 minutes, these little babies would turn into dry toast before I could stop them. So I am going to instead work with Chris's Cornish Game Hens – Peach Glaze recipe. "Only" 275 degrees, 60-90 minutes.

I am considering other flavor profiles instead of peach. What do you think of using cherry preserves in the glaze instead? Too dominating? I could also fall back to apple.....
 
Fwiw, I just made some quality chicken using a homemade peach and bourbon sauce. Glazed the chicken during the last 20 minutes of cooking and served the reserved sauce on the side. Was really good without being overly sweet and the peach didn't dominate at all.

Two whole, chopped peaches
One bottle of peach Snapple
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
About 1/4 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup ACV
1/4---1/3 cup bourbon
Cumin, coriander, ancho Chile
Salt and pepper.

Stick blender, fridge for a couple hours
 
TCampbell said:
Fwiw, I just made some quality chicken using a homemade peach and bourbon sauce. Glazed the chicken during the last 20 minutes of cooking and served the reserved sauce on the side. Was really good without being overly sweet and the peach didn't dominate at all.

Two whole, chopped peaches
One bottle of peach Snapple
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
About 1/4 cup peach preserves
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup ACV
1/4---1/3 cup bourbon
Cumin, coriander, ancho Chile
Salt and pepper.

Stick blender, fridge for a couple hours
Click to expand...
That looks really nice, I have everything but the peaches! Peeled, I presume, I’d most likely peel them but, since your pureeing them, it might not be critical
 
Thanks! I peeled one and left the other skin-on. I simmered some diced onion and garlic with the peaches for a while before the other ingredients went in.
 
I just might have to try that for the next fowl project.
I’m going to slightly “poach” the peaches and pull the skin maybe in the Snapple and other “wet” ingredients, then sweat a shallot and toss the cut peaches in with that for just a bit.
Something to think about.
Thanks,
T
 
Yeah....that sounds like a great call, Timothy. Shallots...I should've done that in the first place.
I'm not exactly getting top-notch fresh peaches. Wonder how canned might work. Too much sugar??
Tim
 
I ended up cooking the bird-ettes using Cornell sauce over a rub mix of Montreal Chicken seasoning and S & P. Glazed once as they hit the heat, once just before they came off. Total cook time was about 55 minutes at 285 or so.

I think the appearance could be improved -- the rub ended up clumped in parts by the sauce -- but the flavor was pretty amazing. I'd upload some pics, but I the file sizes are too large, apparently.
 
My wife worked some photo magic. So FWIW......
 

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