Oven roasted cornish hen with sweet potato steak frites and root vegetable chips
First question for many of you is probably what is a cornish what???? As I call it the "bird on the plate" is basically a little chicken that had a shorter growing span of 28 to 30 days, as opposed to 42 or more for regular chicken. It takes faster to bake than regular whole chicken and its very juicy and moist. Here is my version of the oven roasted cornish hen:
Ingredients
2 cornish hen (usually enough for 4 portions)
1 onion
1 red pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 T margarine
1/2 cup oil mixed with 1T paprika and if you like spicy 1t of montreal steak spice
salt and pepper to taste
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Slice onion and pepper into thin slices and place it in the bottom of a roasting pan with the garlic. Put cornish hen on top and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Let it stand for 5 minutes. Cut margarine into small pieces and stuff it under the skin gently, be careful not to tear the skin. This trick will keep the cornish hen even moister. Mix oil with spices and rub it all over the skin. Fill up the pan with water just to cover the onion and pepper slices. Cover tightly and bake for 40 minutes, once uncovered baste it with the sauce and roast it on 400 degrees for 15 minutes to crisp up the skin. Once its nice and crispy remove it from oven cover it with a piece of silver foil to keep all the juice and moisture inside the hen.
Root vegetable chips
Ingredient
2 carrots peeled
2 parsnips peeled
1 green squash scrubbed clean
1 yellow squash scrubbed clean
1 beet peeled (leave it for last, makes your cutting board all purple)
all vegetables sliced thinly (i like to use my crinkle cutter for a prettier presentation)
olive oil
salt and pepper for tasting
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees (if you have only one oven like I do you can make it before you bake the cornish hen, and just crisp it up in oven before serving)
Spray oil on a sheet pan and lay down all vegetable slices in one layer. Do not overlap them, if necessary use two pans. Drizzle olive oil over the vegatables and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. Put rosemary sprigs over if you choose to use it. Put it in oven and bake it for 40 minutes, until all vegetable slices are crispy.
Sweet potato steak frites
2 large sweet potatoes (scrubbed clean)
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Spray a sheet pan with oil. Cut the ends off the potatoes, then cut them in half lengthwise. Cut into thick wedges, try to keep them same sized for even cooking. Spread the fries on the sheet pan and drizzle with a few tablespoons of olive oil, sprinkle with a big pinch of salt and ground pepper. Toss potato wedges to evenly coat. Sprinkle wit some paprika or smoked paprika for an extra kick of flavor. Roast them for 10-15 minutes, than flip them over and roast it for another 10-15 minute for the perfect crunchy steak frites.
Bon appetite!