Easy Recipe - Cornish Game Hens with Orange Sauce

Jun 21, 2022

During big holidays, my mom would often cook up a wonderful Turkey dinner. During those meals, I would decide to have some breast meat or some thigh meat. I might decide on a wing or maybe I wanted a leg! I didn’t typically have a little of all of these things though.

When it wasn’t a big holiday (just any day of the year), my mom might decide to make each of us in the family a Cornish game hen for dinner. As a kid, I loved that. It looked like a turkey, but it was real little. It was all mine to do with as I pleased. I could eat breast meat, thigh meat, both wings and both legs if I wanted to!!!! Mine all mine!!!!

What I didn’t know back then, was Cornish hens are fairly inexpensive and easy to make.

Ingredients, (try to use organics whenever you can)

One hen per person (in this recipe 2 will be cooked)
spray avocado oil (ok to use another type of spray oil)
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (ok to use another type of oil)
2 teaspoon coconut aminos
2 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
¼ cup orange juice

Prepping the Oven, the Dish and the Cornish Hens

First, position your oven rack to allow the hens to cook close to the center of the oven. Set the oven to 375°F, (191°C), on bake.

Bring your ingredients out so they are ready for use.

Place a wire rack on the bottom of a baking/roasting dish, (no lid needed for this recipe).

This is my 9 x 9 CorningWare dish. Inside it, I have placed an 8″ round stainless steel rack.

I love this bakeware because they all come with lids. I have used these dishes for hot and for cold food. I have used them for various salads (like potato salad). I have used them to transport cookies to a party. I use them in the oven all of the time (without the plastic lids). The dishes clean up beautifully with my secret weapon (seen at the bottom of this post).

I have several sizes of CorningWare brand Simply Lite Glass Bakeware.

Spray some avocado oil on the rack and over the bottom of the dish.

Your hens may be either fresh from the butcher or packaged and ready to be cooked (the ones I have are packaged.

I love meat processors that are proud to say they don’t use antibiotics ever! This company also doesn’t use preservatives, added hormones or steroids in their Cornish hens.

Open the packages and remove the hens. Verify the cavity inside the hens are empty (you do not need anything that might be inside the hens, in this recipe).

Rinse the outside and the inside of each hen using cool water. Pat dry the outside of each hen with a paper towel. Place them in the baking dish.

I have tucked the wings of the hens. I have also put them in reverse directions. Later, I will separate them to the corners.

Brush the surface of the hens with grapeseed oil.

I use grapeseed oil instead of many other food grade oil options out there.

Once the oven has reached the correct baking temperature, put the hens in the oven.

Making the Orange Sauce.

In a small bowl, add 2 tablespoons of coconut aminos,

Simple Truth brand makes a wide variety of organics.

Measure and stir in 2 tablespoons of honey.

Measure and stir in 1 tablespoon of distilled white vinegar. Keep stirring the ingredients until the honey is fairly well dissolved.

No, not organic. This is what I had in my cabinet.

Measure and pour in ¼ cup orange juice.

I like to use organics when ever I can, but sometimes my local grocery is out of stock on organics.

Back to the Hens

Baste the hens with some of the orange sauce now and at least 2 more times (about every twenty minutes to a half of an hour).The hens will be in the oven for between an hour and fifteen minutes to an hour and thirty minutes.

The hens browned some while I was making the orange sauce.

In the last 30 minutes of cooking (to finish even browning and cooking), I separated the hens.

Not all ovens are alike. Your hens may cook quicker or may take longer to cook.

The birds are beautifully cooked, the dish is a splattered, baked on mess. I’ll show you an easy product at the end of this, for easy cleanup of this kind of dish.

At an hour and 15 minutes of cook time, check the hens for doneness. Pierce the center of a thigh with a meat thermometer (avoid touching bone as that could cause an incorrect temperature reading). The hens should be at least 180°F (82°C). Any juice that comes from the hens should not be red or display any hint of pink. When the hens are fully cooked, juices running from them will look like oil, (kind of transparent or golden).

Side Dish 1

About half way through the hens cooking time, I started making a couple of side dishes. I rinsed and cut golden potatoes.

After they were rinsed, I cut out any parts of the potato that were undesirable.

I put them in a 5 quart pot of water with a half teaspoon of salt.

I love my GreenPan Brand pots and pans. They have held up better than any non-stick pots and pans I have ever owned.

I brought them to a boil. They boiled for 30 minutes. I drained them and served them on the side with butter and sour cream (well kind of butter and kind of sour cream).

We try our best to eat healthy. This is one of the item I use on a regular basis.

My body doesn’t like it when I eat any dairy. This is a non-dairy plant based cream cheese alternative. I love it!!!! This and the Smart Balance are delicious on the boiled golden potatoes.

Side Dish 2

I grow my own vegetables during the year, but this year, I haven’t grown green beans. Even though, we love green beans with dinner. Honestly, one of our favorite green beans are canned. We often use Del Monte brand green beans. They only take a few minutes to heat up in a bowl, in the microwave (make sure you use a microwaveable dish and cover them with a lid).

I love this brand of green beans. I grew up eating these when I was young and never got tired of them.

If you really like fresh green beans, click here to Learn how to grow your own “Pole Green Beans“.

Dinner is Served

Well, everything is done and the meal look great. I hope some day soon, you treat yourself, your family and or friends to a wonderful Cornish game hens meal.

This place setting is beautiful, and is full of spring colors, but it really is a hodgepodge of items.
The tea cup is “Royal Sealy China” brand.
The tea pot is Hall’s Alladin pot in Yellow (1940s)
The flatware is Oneida. The pattern is called Reyna (new).
The salt and pepper shakers were handed down to me from my mom. They are Anchor Hocking glassware (vintage).
The plate is an Occupied Japan plate that is part of my Occupied Japan collection (1940s).
Click here to read about “Occupied Japan Collectables”.

Here is A Helpful Cleanup Hint

Remember I told you earlier about a way to easily clean CorningWard baking dishes. During cooking when splatter becomes baked onto CorningWare, it can be a nightmare to clean. Use Cerama Bryte and a scrubby designed to be used with Cerama Bryte. Cooking splatter comes off so easy this way.

After you have removed all of the splatter, rinse the baking dish thoroughly, ensuring all of the Cerama Bryte is gone. After this, put the dish into the dishwasher or wash the dish by hand (ensuring all soap is rinsed away).