Dark Cornish Hen
By Cat, Jun 2014 (Photo, right, from Wikimedia Commons)
I’m always looking for new ways to prepare chicken or game hen, as I get bored with my old faces. So when I saw this recipe, it intrigued me. We have a great local brewery here in my hometown: Flathead Lake Brewing, where I can get a delicious amber ale.
Beer helps to tenderize meat, and lends a wonderful flavor to the cooking liquid. I highly recommend this recipe. Plus I have several other recipes on this site using beer, ale or amber; see link below.
See also: 1. Brining Chicken; 2. Brining Poultry; 3. Butterflying & Brining Game Hen; 4. Poultry & Fowl Menu; 5. Beer/Ale/Amber recipes
Amber (Beer) Braised Cornish Game Hens
I found this recipe on the Alaskan Brewing Co. website, but of course, you could use amber ale from your local microbrewery (or bottled amber, in a pinch). The original recipe uses 4 game hens, so I’ve adapted this recipe for just one hen; you can easily multiply ingredients for more hens. Or you could use a half-chicken.
Ingredients & Equipment
- 1 Cornish Game Hen
- Unrefined sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
- Paprika to taste
- 1 small onion (or ¼ of a larger onion), sliced
- 1 clove garlic, sliced
- ¼ – ½ tsp. dried thyme
- 1 – 2 Tbsp lard or used bacon fat
- 4 oz (¼ lb.) button mushrooms, quartered
- ¼ cup amber ale
- 2 Tbsp Chicken Stock
- Unrefined sea salt and freshly-ground black pepper, to taste
- 1 – 2 Tbsp tapioca starch
- 1 – 2 Tbsp butter (optional, for buerre manie)
- Equipment:
- Large bowl for brining
- Saucier or Dutch oven
Method
- Prep: Brine hen for 2 hours. Remove from brine, rinse and pat dry. Season with pepper and paprika. NOTE: if you don’t brine the bird, season it also with Unrefined sea salt.
- Meanwhile, slice onion and garlic and set aside with the thyme; quarter mushrooms and set aside separately.
- Brown and braise: Heat lard in saucier over medium-high heat. Brown hens, skin-side down about 3 minutes; then turn it over and brown other side, 2 – 3 minutes; remove.
- Reduce heat to medium low. Add garlic, onions and thyme to pan and sauté until translucent, about 5 minutes.
- Add amber, mushrooms and stock to pan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat. Return hen and cover. Simmer over low heat for one hour, covered. When done, remove hen to warm plate and keep warm while you make the sauce.
- Sauce: Make a buerre manie using 1 Tbsp butter and 1 Tbsp flour, then add it to the pot and stir to thicken. Alternately, stir 1 Tbsp starch into about ¼ cup of the cooking liquid, then stir it back into the pot; but I prefer the buerre manie.
- Serve hen with sauce. The sauce is also delicious on mashed potatoes as an accompaniment.
Testing
6/20/14: I used 1 hame hen, and made as written, using lard to sear the hen. I could not find an amber ale so used IPA (India Pale Ale, which is not pale but amber in color). After adding the ale and broth to deglaze, I thought there would not be enough liquid, so added 1 – 2 Tbsp filtered water. Turns out I didn’t need that. Bird was fall-off-the-bone tender when I removed it to make the sauce, using starch/liquid method. No adjustment to seasoning was needed for the bird nor the sauce. Result: Easy recipe and delicious! I’ll definitely make this again. No alterations to recipe needed.
Thanksgiving, 2017: Made as written using IPA as before. Used starch/liquid method to thicken the sauce, but don’t really like the starchy texture/taste; next time, use buerre manie (flour and butter mixture) to thicken.
References:
- Alaskan Brewing Co. recipe; 2017 note: the original link is no longer valid and I cannot find it online. (alaskanbeer.com/component/rapidrecipe/amber-braised-cornish-game-hens.html)
