This Cornish game hen recipe is perfect for Easter or any other occasion! The bright flavors of the orange, sherry, and rosemary will have everyone wanting more.
Raise your hand if you eat ham every single Easter. I bet a lot of you are raising your hands. As much as I love ham (especially this five ingredient slow cooker maple dijon ham), I think there comes a time for mixing it up a little.
Why you’ll love this recipe
- Approachable: If you’re intimidated by the thought of preparing a Cornish hen, don’t be! It’s really simple. If you can cook chicken, you can cook Cornish game hen.
- Impressive and flavorful: Blow your family and friends away with this beautiful Cornish game hen recipe. They’ll be impressed, but more importantly, their taste buds will be satisfied with the bright citrus of the orange and the savory pine notes of the rosemary.
How to Make this Cornish Game Hen
This recipe looks super impressive but in reality is quite easy to make. Those are my favorite kind of recipes. As always, scroll down for the complete and printable recipe card.
Prep the Cornish hens. First, remove the giblets. If you like giblets, you could make giblet gravy or a homemade stock. Give the Cornish hens a little massage with olive oil. That helps them get crispy beautiful brown skin. Season them, inside and out, with salt and pepper. Put them into a roasting pan large enough to accommodate the hens side by side.
Add oranges and onions. Place one orange wedge and one sprig of rosemary inside each hen. Arrange the remaining orange wedges, unpeeled, and a quartered onion around the hens in the roasting pan.
Roast. Start with a high temperature, 450°F for 25 minutes, to get the Cornish hens going and to caramelize the onions and the oranges.
Reduce oven temperature. Turn the oven down to 350°F, and add the sherry, chicken broth, and mustard to the pan to keep the hens moist, and to add terrific flavor during the remainder of the cooking time. Baste every 10 to 15 minutes to bathe the hens in the great flavor of the broth and to keep them from drying out.
Check internal temperature. Once the hens have roasted for 45 minutes, check the internal temperature to make sure they’re done. I like to use an instant read thermometer. Insert it into the thickest part of the hens.
Serve. Remove the Cornish hens from the pan, put them on a platter, and tent them with foil to keep warm. Reduce the juices in the pan over high heat to make a nice sauce. Enjoy!
Serving tips
Try serving Cornish hens with slow cooker mashed potatoes, zucchini rice casserole (also bakes at 350!), sauteed parsnips with white wine and thyme, or green beans with lemon and feta.
Cornish Game Hen Recipe with Orange and Rosemary
Ingredients
- 2 Cornish hens (about 2 pounds each)
- 2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
- 1 large orange, quartered
- 2 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 1 yellow onion, quartered
- ¼ cup sherry or sherry cooking wine
- ¼ cup reduced sodium chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°F.
- If present, remove giblets from Cornish hens. Rub outside of Cornish hens with 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Season hens with salt and pepper on all sides. Place 1 orange wedge and 1 sprig of rosemary in cavity of each hen.
- Arrange the hens in a roasting pan, and arrange remaining orange wedges and quartered onions around hens. Roast at 450°F for 25 minutes.
- Reduce oven temperature to 350°F. In a small bowl or measuring cup, whisk together sherry wine, chicken broth, mustard, and remaining 1 tablespoon of oil and pour over hens.
- Continue roasting about 45 minutes longer, or until hens are golden brown and juices run clear and an instant-read thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh registers 180°F. Baste with juices from pan every 10 minutes.
- Transfer hens, oranges, and onions to a platter, pouring liquid from cavities into the roasting pan. Cover Cornish hens loosely with aluminum foil to keep warm. Transfer pan juices to a medium saucepan (you can also do this right in the roasting pan) and place over high heat. Boil until liquids reduce to a sauce, 5 to 7 minutes.
- To serve, cut hens in half lengthwise and arrange on plates. Spoon sauce over hens and serve.
Notes
- If you’d rather not use sherry, substitute additional chicken broth.
Video
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Did You Make This?Share a comment and rating below! I love hearing what you think!
Absolutely fantastic! Made it last Thanksgiving exactly as is with the exception of the cooking sherry as we don’t have that particular brand where i live, was superb! And easy! Everyone loved it! Made it a couple times since just cuz and am making it for thanksgiving again tomorrow! Can’t wait! Thank you for sharing it! Be safe :)
So glad you like this recipe so much! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
Hello Rachel,
I was looking for a fresh idea for Cornish hen I found your recipe with the orange rosemary and sherry. I’ve been a chef for over 40 years and Holland House cooking wines been around a lot longer than I have and I just got to tell you it’s a sin to use this filled with salt terrible taste I don’t know how you can recommend this. A chefs rule to cooked by if you can’t drink it don’t cook with it let me see you take a drink of this disgusting Holland House.
By the way the recipe was fantastic while using a really good sherry that is drinkable I thank you for that but please do not recommend this Holland House oh my goodness.
Thanks for your opinion. There’s definitely more than one way to make this recipe!
GURK! Oh man! Sorry that’s your name. You don’t wanna get gurk’d if you live near south Jersey (or maybe you do). :D
Ha….okay? You must know something I don’t know. :)
I have made this recipe 3 times in 6 weeks, my husband loves it. It truly is delicious.
I use Fino Sherry, not the cooking sherry, because I have that sherry in my pantry.. it is company worthy. It is not a stressful recipe, served with Ina’s wild rice salad and on other occasions served it with Birds eye steamed white rice with mixed vegetables for a weeknight dinner.
Wow, I love that! I’m so glad you like this recipe, thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Made this dish for Easter dinner – big hit. Reminded me of France – the aroma and taste were wonderful. Served this with a wild rice dish and some corn. Great way to make Cornish hens!
I’m so happy to hear that you liked this recipe! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
I made this recipe today. They were the best cornish hens I have made in a long time. Your recipe is keeper.
Wow, what high praise! I’m so glad you liked them, and thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
served this to the family last night, with the green bean and feta suggestion, as well as a wild/forbidden rice side cooked with rehydrated leeks and chicken concentrate. i cooked down the juices, but also addd some arrowroot to thicken it, at the end.
it was a big hit, everyone especially loved the sauce.
So happy to hear that it was a hit! The rice sounds amazing, too! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
Thanks for sharing this recipe – I’m going to make it for the holidays. Just one comment though…. I had to close at least 5-6 ads before I was able to view the page. It’s SO annoying to have to wrestle through all these ads! Enough to want to make me never return to this webpage. Sorry.
Hi Isabella,
Thanks for visiting! I hope you love the cornish hens. I understand your frustration and would love to know if you’re browsing on a phone, tablet, or computer. The ads should not get in the way of viewing the content, but please let me know if they do. I hope you also understand that running a website like this and keeping it free for visitors costs me thousands of dollars each month, not to mention the time I put in developing recipes, photographing them, and writing the posts. The ads help me to offset those costs so I can continue doing this.
Thanks again for your feedback! -Rach
Very puzzled by this response. What could possibly cost thousands of dollars each month in addition to (“not to mention”) the time put in, etc? Anyone could do it for less than $100/month. And, yes, it took FOREVER for the page to load on a highspeed broadband connection here as well (top of the line laptop too), so not a site I would continue to visit either. After 30+ years in IT, I have to say someone is bilking you if it’s costing you that kind of dough. A shame, really…. your content has potential. Find someone to help you vs whoever is ripping you off!
Hi Emil,
I pay less than $100 for my hosting service, but I also pay for things such as site maintenance, security, site design, a videographer, a social media assistant, SO MANY GROCERIES, camera equipment, photo editing software, props to make my photos look appealing for all of you, etc. etc. I appreciate you saying my content has potential, but part of the reason for that is because I invest time and money into it.
I am also very focused on keeping the site loading fast, so to hear that it’s loading slowly is quite a surprise, I’ve never heard anyone say that.
Thank you for your feedback and concern.
Made it tonight with the addition of sweet potatoes and carrots nestled around the hens. It was a really nice and relatively easy Sunday dinner!
Oh I’m so happy to hear that! Thanks for taking the time to come back and leave a comment!
This is a lovely recipe! I stuffed the hens with several quartered Cutie clementine tangerines and several quartered cloves of fresh garlic. I also placed several quartered clementines around the hens with the onions. The result was not only beautiful, but the dish was heavenly to the taste buds. Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for taking the time to come back and leave a comment – it means a lot to me!