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Delicious Cold Smoked Cornish Game Hens!!!

Part of the secret of Cold Smoked Cornish Game Hens is in the brine, that helps to flavor the hens. Once you get a cold smoker generator it is so easy to learn how to cold smoke, and once you get started on doing this you will be hooked and find ways to cold smoke every thing that you can!
Prep Time10 minutes
Cook Time6 hours
Set In Brine3 days
Total Time3 days 6 hours 10 minutes
Course: Entree
Cuisine: BBQ
Servings: 8 Servings
Calories: 463kcal
Author: Guy Who Grills

Equipment

Ingredients

Instructions

  • In a large bin that has a lid pour in all your brine ingredients and the brine mixture a good swirl. If your Cornish game hens are thawed then throw in some ice to the brine as well.
  • Set in your game hens in the brine I don't fully submerge mine since as they thaw they will add more liquid, you can add more water later on if necessary.
  • Make sure your grill is clean before you start the cold smoke.
  • Follow the directions for setting up your cold smoker.
  • On your top rack and bottom rack space out your Cornish game hens.
  • Fire up the cold smoker and let the fun begin. I set times for every half hour to 45 minutes to go push pellets down and rotate the chicken around. The cold smoke will fill your grill to flavor up the Cornish game hens.
  • Now as you can see even though its a cold smoke the hens start to cook a bit, the cold smoker puts out some heat right next to it. Since then I have learned to put the hens on the other side they still get the smoke but it doesn't cook them.
  • Allow the hens to be smoked for a couple hours on the grill with just the cold smoker.
  • Once you are close to wanting to eat fire up a couple of burners and allow the chicken to cook at a low heat. I fire up the burners on the opposite side of the grill from the chicken so they take a bit longer and also will absorb more of the smoke flavor.
  • Once they are done they will have an amazing crisp skin and color to them!!

Notes

 *I put my frozen Cornish game hens in the brine on a Tuesday night and smoked them on Saturday. Storing in the fridge they stayed cold and icy so I didn’t add ice*

Nutrition

Calories: 463kcal | Carbohydrates: 3g | Protein: 39g | Fat: 32g | Saturated Fat: 9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 227mg | Sodium: 17908mg | Potassium: 618mg | Fiber: 0.2g | Sugar: 1g | Vitamin A: 307IU | Vitamin C: 3mg | Calcium: 81mg | Iron: 3mg