Cornish Game Hens With Peach Glaze

Directions

1. Brine the hens: Dissolve the salt in about 2 qts cool water in a small, clean bucket or possibly large bowl. Add in the hens breast side down; chill 2 to 3 hrs. Remove, rinse thoroughly, pat dry , and prick skin all over breast and legs with point of paring knife.
2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
3. Butterfly the hens: Remove the backbone with kitchen shears; flatten he birds, breast side up with palm of hand. Loosen the skin around leg/thighs of hens and along breastbone to expose meat. Generously sprinkle exposed meat with salt, pepper, and herb of choice. Heat the margarine and fold in the peach preserves*I used peach because I had some handy. Apricot or possibly other preserves can be used. Add in spices (I added white pepper and basil)
4. Rub the hens with about 2 Tbsp. margarine, softened. Brush hens with margarine and preserves mix. Put the hens on a rack on top of a roasting pan or possibly jelly roll pan . Roast hens 20 to 25 min till nicely browned (I roasted 30 min). Turn oven from bake to broil and broil 5 min or possibly till nicely browned.
5. Lou's Notes: These were quite delicious! This was an experiment based on an 'Illustrated. This dish combines their suggestions for brining the hens to greatly enhance the flavor and butter flying them to "solve many of the problems with roasting a whole hen." The brining seemed to work well. The meat was very tasty and there was no trace of salt left. Removing the backs was a bit messy, but worked ok. The glaze was taken from an apricot-glazed
6. One of the benefits to removing the backs is the shorter cooking time. I roasted them a bit longer than the recipe recommended (30 min). Still, my husband said they could have cooked a bit longer, but I was afraid of their drying out. I used peach preserves because I had just which amount left from a jar my friend Cyn made from Hill Country peaches. Servings - one hen each if the hens are small or possibly hearty appetites. Larger hens or possibly smaller appetites could make do on one hen for two.
7. The article has other recommendations for stuffing and more details on roasting game hens. 8/97