Harvest Cornish Hens
- 4 each baking hens
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 teaspoon parsley flakes dried
- 1/4 teaspoon thyme dried
- 1 tablespoon butter or margarine
- 10 ounces carrots sliced
- 12 ounces mushrooms
- 10 ounces mung bean sprouts
- 1 tablespoon flour, all-purpose
- Remove giblets and necks from Rock Cornish Hens; refrigerate to use in soup another day.
- Rinse hens with running cold water; pat dry with paper towels.
- Sprinkle inside body cavity with salt and pepper.
- Fold neck skin to back; lift wings toward neck, then fold them under back of hen so they stay in place.
- With string, tie legs and tail of each hen together.
- Place hens, breast-side up, on rack in roasting pan.
- In a cup, mix olive or salad oil, dried parsley flakes, dried thyme leaves, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper; brush hens with oil mixture.
- Roast hens in 350F (180C) oven about 1 1/4 hours, brushing hens occasionally with drippings in pan.
- Hens are done when legs can be moved up and down easily or when fork is inserted between leg and body cavity and juices that escape are not pink.
- Toward the end of roasting hens, in 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat, in hot margarine, cook carrots, Brussel sprouts and 1/2 teaspoon salt until golden.
- Add 1/2 cup water; over high heat, heat to boiling.
- Reduce heat to medium-low; cover and cook 5 to 10 minutes until vegetables are tender-crisp, stirring occasionally; keep warm.
- When hens are done, discard strings.
- Place hens on warm large platter; keep warm.
- For gravy, remove rack from roasting pan; pour pan drippings into 1-cup measure; let drippings stand a few seconds until fat deparates from meat juice.
- Skim 2 tablespoon fat from drippings into 3-quart saucepan; skim and discard any remeining fat.
- In saucepan over high heat, in hot fat, cook mushrooms until tender and golden, stirring occasionally.
- Stir enough milk into meat juice to measuring to equal 1 cup; stir in flour, chicken bouillon and 1/2 teaspoon salt until blended.
- Add 1/2 cup water to roasting pan; stir to loosen brown bits from bottom of pan.
- Pour water and brown bits into mushrooms in saucepan.
- Add meat-juice mixture; cook over high heat, stirring constantly until mixture boils and thickens slightly; boil 1 minute.
- To serve, arrange vegetables on platter with Cornish hens.
- Garnish with parsley sprigs.
- Serve with mushroom gravy.
baking hens, olive oil, parsley, thyme, butter, carrots, mushrooms, bean sprouts, flour
Taken from recipeland.com/recipe/v/harvest-cornish-hens-46046 (may not work)