I hate to admit it but I suck at cooking chicken. Usually I do well with legs or thighs, but chicken breasts or whole roast chickens never turn out as well as I think they will, with the end product being quite the disappointment.
One of the problems is that I don’t have a chicken rack to prop the chicken up in the pan. Another problem is that I have a strange affinity towards cooking chicken upside down. That is, on it’s breasts. This never works out and I always curse myself when my end product turns out horribly due to a topsy-turvy bird.
This is what happened when I tried my hand at Cornish game hens. My thinking was they were practically the same as regular hens (which again, I suck at cooking and thus made a bad decision when going for miniature versions) but would cook more quickly and we could each get our own.
Although my hens were undercooked and chewy (how that is even possible, I don’t know), I didn’t have the heart to throw them out. So we ate what we could and stuck the leftovers in the fridge for a couple days. Don’t they look great though? Although, they have clearly been laying on their stomachs and aren’t happy about it one bit.
Yesterday I had the brilliant idea of making chicken soup out of them. My freezer has become invaded by homemade stock and making soup gave me the perfect reason to use some. The soup, not like the hens, turned out fabulously and was as close to comfort as I have ever made. I added wild rice for a heartier meal, and omitted celery because I just didn’t feel like venturing into the cold for a stalk of celery of which half would go bad.
Chicken/Cornish Game Hen and Wild Rice Soup
3 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (both white and dark meat work well)
6 cups chicken stock
2 tablespoons fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
kosher salt to taste
pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion
1 cup wild rice
Sautee onion in olive oil over medium heat in soup pot. Once onions have become translucent, add in carrots and cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Pour in stock and add chicken, thyme, and wild rice. The rice will cook and plump up, so add more stock if you would like a thinner soup. Simmer for 20 minutes and serve. I like to keep the soup over low heat for at least an hour, the flavors meld together over time and are even more pronounced the next day.
Season with salt and pepper to taste
2 comments
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December 14, 2009 at 9:25 am
dhaleb
Have you heard of cooking your chicken using a beer can to prop it up? I’ve never tried it before but I heard the beer really adds great moisture to the meat plus it stands it up for you!
December 21, 2009 at 5:34 pm
Shannon (The Daily Balance)
This looks great! I’ve always wanted to try cooking Cornish hen, but have always been too intimidated — this sounds easy enough though! Thanks for sharing