This Cornish Game Hen Brine is my favorite for making a Smoked Cornish game Hens recipe. I do love to change it up sometimes so this time I decided to see what would happen if I took brined cornish game hens and added a dry rub. Well let me tell you this took the flavor to the next level, and now I am not sure I will make them another way besides changing spices around.
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Now I love that my old lady is a frugal shopper she picks up these cornish game hens at Safeway for $5 Fridays quite often so we always have at least four in the freezer. I love that she hunts grocery stores for the best deals, and the kids love they get an entire bird to themselves, they are like little small chickens. After being on the road working I was ready to get my smoke game back on!! These little birds can be fun to make for a special occasion but one really isn’t needed.
Vertical Smokers
Bradley PucksMeat Thermometer
Now I use a Smoke Hollow Smoker to smoke in and also use apple pucks as well when I smoke, fruit woods are my favorite with chicken. Everything smoking equipment I use is above and on Amazon! I did adapt the pipe on the smoker to billow out more smoke to help it smoke at a lower temperature to make the food taste even better. I have also smoked these in my pellet smoker, and you can do any other smoker that requires wood chips as well.
What is a Cornish Game Hen?
A cornish game hen is a particular variety of boiler chicken, it is served young and immature. Typically they are less than 2 pounds in weight but they are not game birds. They are like miniature chickens, perfect for a single serving. They are most often found in the frozen section of the grocery store.
Cornish Hen Brine Ingredients:
- Cornish Game Hens
- Water
- Salt
- Garlic Salt
- Worcestershire Sauce
- Black Pepper
- Montreal Steak Seasoning
- Ice
Cornish Hen Brine Dry Rub Ingredients:
Cornish Game Hens Stuffing Ingredients:
How To Make A Brine For Cornish Hens:
This cornish hen recipe does take some planning to do, the brine also works on large breasts or regular chicken. We keep our cornish game hens frozen and place them in the brine frozen. Be sure to know and follow food safety procedures for thawing time and storage of this brine and the hens.
Fill a larger container or large bowl with water and put in all your brine ingredients. This container needs to have a lid.
Give the water and the brine a good stirring with a whisk.
Place your frozen game hens into the container of chicken brine solution and keep them refrigerated until you are ready to smoke. Note if you are not placing them in a refrigerator you need to keep a constant ice bath on the chickens.
Keeping the gallon of brine this cold allows the chicken to absorb the flavoring as well as season cavities as well.
This sat in a fridge for a couple of days, I recommend at least an overnight brine.
Pull your hens and brine mixture out of the fridge a couple of hours before you are ready to smoke to allow them to get to room temperature.
Discard the brine after you are done, you do not want to keep the brine.
When you remove your cornish game hens from the brine place hens on a pan or a pan lined with aluminum foil.
Pat the hens dry with a paper towel after removing them from the brine.
How To Dry Rub Cornish Game Hens:
Rub or brush hens with sesame oil, or olive oil, onto the hens, this will help to have crispy skin but also prevent hens from sticking to the grill grates.
Season with your rub. I did use Jack Daniels Chicken Rub but Spiceology makes amazing rubs as well.
Allow the young chickens to rest for a bit, you can store them in the fridge as well to let them season more.
How To Make Smoked Cornish Hens:
Start your smoker up with the water and wood pucks to get a good smoke rolling and going before putting in your chicken.
Spray your smoking rack with a nonstick spray or rub them with oil.
Chop up your celery, leeks, and green onion into stalks that are about the same length, this will be a smaller size than they are bought.
Take your twine and tie a combination of the three into bundles that will fit to stuff hens. Note you won’t be eating these, this is to keep the meat moist while smoking. I have an obsession with spreading things out on a cutting board, this helps me to also see if we have everything together.
Make garlic butter by taking a slab of cold butter, I started with 4 tablespooon butter and added, and mix with minced garlic. Or just keep throwing slabs of butter into the bowl till you get the consistency you want or the amount you want.
Scoop premade garlic butter or scoop your garlic butter blend into balls that will fit into the cornish game hens, you can make these any size I used a Wilton cookie scoop.
Hold your hen open and stuff posterior of the bird with a garlic butterball, add more minced garlic, and then shove in a bundle of the green mixture.
It can be helpful to stand them on the upper end of the hen for this part.
Place your breast side down chicken on the racks in the smoker.
Keep your smoker at about 225 degrees or medium heat or medium-high heat on the grill, it is important to cook them on indirect heat. A higher temperature will allow for fast cooking of the hens but medium low heat with indirect cooking will allow for juicy meat and smoky flavor.
Keep an eye on the temperature of the smoker and use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat. Do not remove until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
The cook time for mine was about 3 ½ hours but cook for temperature, not time.
Remove from the smoker you can cut them into individual portions of each bird or they are the perfect size for serving as is.
The crispier skin adds an extra layer of flavor.
As you can tell the skin was falling off the hens, and they were so juicy!
Now, this was my first dinner since getting back into town with my family and we had a nice spread of food! I did doctor up some bbq sauce to my liking that I coated my hen in. No one left hungry that night with pasta salad, potato salad, and rice.
What is your go-to way to make Cornish Game Hens?? Have you smoked them before?
How to Store leftover Smoked Cornish Game Hens
Store in an airtight container in the fridge. The remainder meat will be good for two to four days if stored properly. You can also debone the cornish game hens and freeze the meat. I would use the remaining meat within 30 days after freezing.
Other Brine Ingredient Options:
- Quartered Lemon Slices
- Brown Sugar
- Garlic Powder
- Garlic Cloves
- Chicken Broth
- Orange Juice
- Apple Cider Vinegar
- Lemon Zest
- Apple Juice
What To Serve With Smoked Cornish Game Hens:
The sky is the limit on What to serve with Cornish game hens, starches and vegetables are my go-to! See my list of ideas -> here.
Side Dish: Caesar Salad, Rice, Smoked Baked Potatoes, Smoked Deviled Eggs, Grilled Twice Baked Potatoes, Smoked Potato Salad, Oven Roasted Potatoes, and Deviled Egg Macaroni Salad
Desserts: Pumpkin Bundt Cake, Chocolate Peanut Butter No Bakes, Pink Fluff, Oreo Fluff, 2 Ingredient Peanut Butter Fudge, Cake Mix Cookies, Ice Cream Floats, Triple Chocolate Bundt Cake
Smoked Cornish Hens Recipes:
These are some of my favorites to smoke. The flavor is always excellent, and they are easy to change up each time you make them. These can be made on a pellet smoker or any smoker.
- Sweet And Spicy Cornish Game Hens
- Mediterranean Smoked Cornish Game Hens
- Cold Smoked Cornish Game Hens
- Smoked Cornish Game Hens With Brine And Dry Rub
- Coca-Cola Smoked Cornish Game Hens
- Smoked Cornish Game Hens With Brine
Smoked Cornish Game Hens With Brine And Dry Rub Recipe
Ingredients
Brine Ingredients
- 1 Gallon Water
- 1 Cup Salt
- ¼ Cup Garlic Salt
- ¼ Cup Worcestershire Sauce
- 4 Tablespoon Black Pepper
- ¼ Cup Montreal Steak Seasoning
- Ice
Dry Rub Ingredients
Stuffing Ingredients
- 1 Bundle Leeks
- 1 Bunch Green Onions
- 3 Stalks Celery
- Garlic Herb Butter
- Minced Garlic
Instructions
How To Make A Brine For Cornish Hens
- This cornish hen recipe does take some planning to do, the brine also works on large breasts or regular chicken. We keep our cornish game hens frozen and place them in the brine frozen. Be sure to know and follow food safety procedures for thawing time and storage of this brine and the hens.
- Fill a larger container or large bowl with water and put in all your brine ingredients. This container needs to have a lid.
- Give the water and the brine a good stirring with a whisk.
- Place your frozen game hens into the container of chicken brine solution and keep them refrigerated until you are ready to smoke. Note if you are not placing them in a refrigerator you need to keep a constant ice bath on the chickens.
- Keeping the gallon of brine this cold allows the chicken to absorb the flavoring as well as season cavities as well.
- This sat in a fridge for a couple of days, I recommend at least an overnight brine.
- Pull your hens and brine mixture out of the fridge a couple of hours before you are ready to smoke to allow them to get to room temperature.
- Discard brine after you are done, you do not want to keep the brine.
- When you remove your cornish game hens from the brine place hens on a pan or a pan lined with aluminum foil.
- Pat the hens dry with a paper towel after removing them from the brine.
How To Dry Rub Cornish Game Hens:
- Rub or brush hens with sesame oil, or olive oil, onto the hens, this will help to have a crispy skin but also prevent hens from sticking to the grill grates.
- Season with your rub. I did use Jack Daniels Chicken Rub but Spiceology makes amazing rubs as well.
- Allow the young chickens to rest for a bit, you can store them in the fridge as well to let them season more.
How To Make Smoked Cornish Hens:
- Start your smoker up with the water and wood pucks to get a good smoke rolling and going before putting in your chicken.
- Spray your smoking rack with a nonstick spray or rub with oil.
- Chop up your celery, leeks, and green onion into stalks that are about the same length, this will be a smaller size than they are bought.
- Take your twine and tie a combination of the three into bundles that will fit to stuff hens. Note you won't be eating these, this is to keep the meat moist while smoking. I have an obsession with spreading things out on a cutting board, this helps me to also see if we have everything together.
- Make garlic butter by taking a slab of cold butter, I started with 4 tbsp butter and added, and mix with minced garlic. Or just keep throwing slabs of butter into the bowl till you get the consistency you want or amount.
- Scoop premade garlic butter or scoop your garlic butter blend into balls that will fit into the cornish game hens, you can make these any size I used a Wilton cookie scoop.
- Hold your hen open and stuff posterior of the bird with a garlic butterball, add more minced garlic, and then shove in a bundle of the green mixture.
- It can be helpful to stand them on the upper end of the hen for this part.
- Place your breast side down chicken on the racks in the smoker. Keep your smoker at about 225 degrees and smoke for about 3 ½ hours.
- Place breast side down chicken on the racks in the smoker, or on the thickest part of the breast.
- Keep your smoker at about 225 degrees or medium heat or medium-high heat on the grill, it is important to cook them on indirect heat. A higher temperature will allow for fast cooking of the hens but medium low heat with indirect cooking will allow for juicy meat and smoky flavor.
- Keep an eye on the temperature of the smoker and use a meat thermometer to check the internal temperature of the meat. Do not remove until the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
- The cook time for mine was about 3 ½ hours but cook for temperature, not time
Video
Nutrition
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