Bar­be­cued Cor­nish Game Hens

Bar­be­cued Cor­nish Game Hens
(serves four)

3 Cor­nish game hens

equal parts (about 3/4 cup each): ketchup, hon­ey, maple syrup, Worces­ter­shire sauce
peel (but not bit­ter pith) of 1 lemon or lime
3 cloves garlic
half a red onion, cut in chunks

Place all the mari­nade ingre­di­ents in your Cuisi­nart and whizz till nice­ly mixed, but with chunks of onion left.

Now here’s the trick: split your hens down the back, choos­ing one side or the oth­er of the spine and cut­ting the spine away when you’ve thor­ough­ly split the birds. Throw the spines, with the neck and kid­neys from the giblet bag, in a pot and cov­er with water, salt thor­ough­ly and sim­mer for a cou­ple of hours. There’s a nice pot of chick­en stock for you.

Now line a big bak­ing dish or cook­ie sheet with foil and lay the hens out, then slather with the mari­nade. Leave as long as you can, but at least an hour.

Fire your grill (we have a propane Weber, thank you Jill and Joel) up to near­ly its hottest, about 400 degrees inter­nal tem­per­a­ture. Grill the birds skin side up for 15 min­utes, then skin side down for anoth­er 15 min­utes. Perfection!

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