This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe will make you rethink roast chicken. Often Neil will roast a chicken on Sunday afternoon and we will eat that for dinner with enough for leftovers through the week. But you know, sometimes you don’t want to be dealing with leftovers and even the smallest chicken will yield some. Enter Cornish hens. The perfect size for a roast chicken meal for two (plus some for Cleo). Bonus, if you “spatchcock” the hens (remove the backbone and flatten the bird), they will cook in about 35 minutes at 500˚F.
Dorie’s recipe is simple, calling for a little tapenade under the skin of the bird, some olive oil and some lemon juice rubbed in for good measure. I added some lemon zest and served it with home-made fingerling potato fries sprinkled with coarse sea salt.
Sunday dinner perfection!
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I agree that these little babies were pretty much the perfect serving size. That plus the short cooking time plus the all over crispy skin made these a winner for me. I will definitely be buying these guys more often.
They are a total winner!
Aw… I wish I had found the cornish hens. Although I love packing leftovers for work, it’s always nice to cook a meal that’s just right in amount for two. Have a great weekend!
I agree – love that there was no waste or mess either!
I see Mlle Michels “conveniently” left out the part about removing the tailbone…butcher Mr. Neil here for that. 😉
I love almsot any roasted bird, to be honest. Be it chicken or pigeon, goose or duck – hard to go wrong.
To match the tapenade in the hen, and as it was our first chilly weekend of the season, I went for a wine a little heavier than I normally would. Paired this with a Beaujolais, AOC Brouilly. Don’t think insipid nouveau…bright fruit, but with a slight brooding spine from the Gamay grape. Fond memories of our recent trip that part of France…
Totally! In house butchers rule!
Your skin is so nicely browned! Looks lovely.
🙂 Thanks!
Very pretty.
I need an “in house” butcher 🙂
We all do.
Looks great. What isn’t better with tapenade?
Agreed.
Love this dish – beautiful photos. Great flavors!
Beautiful photos!
Thank you very much!
Looks great! I’m jealous of your photos! (And your potato fries). Yum!
Thanks, I love these fries!
That’s what “spatchcock” means…thanks! 😉
Uh huh!
How nice having Mr. Neil as your sous chef! Gorgeous photos as always…and I think I’ll be trying Cornish hens again with a different recipe 🙂
Yes it’s handy 😉
These look perfect & I love your roasted potatoes! A great Autmn meal!
Mmmm- I love these potatoes too!
Delicious! I love cornish hens and paired with your home-made fingerling fries and a nice Beaujolais makes me so sad that I didn’t get my dinner invitation in the mail on time!
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Weekend Mardi & Mr. Neil 🙂
P.S. have you ever cooked them on the bbq rotisserie? So good.
No, never on a BBQ rotisseire because we don’t have one but I can just imagine!
Your cornish hen is so pretty and golden brown. This was the first time I have used the spatchcock technique, but it won’t be the last. It does make it roast evenly.
I was surprised how well this worked!
I’m with you roasted bird is delectable any way it comes. Add the tapenade and it really goes places!
Paired with a Brouilly seems like a killer match. Brouilly was new to me earlier in the year, and I found it to be second only to St. Amour for Cru Beaujolais that really pleased me.
Cheers!
Jason
I am so lucky I have my in-house sommelier 🙂
The pictures literally made my mouth water, I enjoyed learning a new word (spatchcock), and I’m going to commit “bright fruit, but with a slight brooding spine” to memory to intimidate my friends. Thanks Mardi and Mr. Neil.
I can just imagine you saying that at your next party 😉
That looks so delicious it is making me hungry for chicken! I’m going to have to make this soon.
Yes I think it’s going on our menu soon as well!
Looks really superb!
Thanks – I was pleased with how they came out!
I’m lovin’ this one….perfect little bird!
Aren’t they cute?
This looks like it came out perfectly! What a lovely dinner!
It was the perfect dinner!
One of the things I love about FFwd is the expressions used for
various cooking techniques. I have never heard the term “”spatchcock”
until I read the comments this week. My mother in law always called
Cornish hens “pheasanette”. Hubby and I enjoyed ours, and will
being using this recipe again. Your dish looks wonderful.
Yes I love learning all sorts of things from Dorie as we cook along too!
I used to love cooking cornish hens, but the recipe I used involved too many steps and ingredients. (eg. it wasn’t simple!) This definitely looks like something I can try any night of the week. Oooh! And that side of potatoes look like the perfect accompaniment.
Cheers,
Kristina
Yes it’s the perfect weeknight dinner!
Yours looks delicious. I so love this olive tapenade ! I am glad that I did not give it a miss 🙂
yes the tapenade was a surprising hit!
this looks sooo delicious… i have been trying some of Dorie’s recipes as well and so far loving them… will give this a shot as well
This is soooo easy!
Hi Mardi,
Your Cornish hen looks good!!! It’s been years since I’ve cooked these cute little hens 🙂 I wish my oven would reach 500F!! I have an ancient one…read about my oven dilemma when I made my macarons this weekend at my blog. I posted my macaron making adventure already 🙂
Yes it’s quite hot – I was surprised our oven coped!
Your cornish hen looks perfect Mardi. Glad you’re still involved with FFWD. I hope to be back cooking and baking with the group sometime soon.
Thanks! As I mentioned yesterday, it’s all about making the small quantities!
These look so perfect… Love the photos!
Thanks. It’s not easy to take a good pic of a spatchcocked hen!
your pictures always make me swoon! Love your dish for your fingerling potato fries, which also makes me want to pluck some fries off the screen to try! 🙂 Delicious looking!!!
Yes the fries were really tasty too!
Are these chickens like our poussins?
Yes I believe so!