Cornish Hen in the Clay Pot

I love using my claypot especially for chicken or Cornish hens.  The meat just seems to 'melt off the bones'.

For this past Thanksgiving there were only the two of us, my son Anthony and I, so we decided to cook a Cornish hen instead of a turkey.  I thought I would be sorry to not have leftover turkey meat for sandwiches, but we were amazed at how much meat there was on that little bird. 

It was enough for the meal and leftovers rendered 5 sandwiches!

Tcook in the clay pot, you first immerse the clay pot and lid in a sink or small tub full of water until it absorbs all the liquid that it an take in.

Place the food in it and bake in the oven.

 

I marinated the Cornish hen with a mixture of juice from one large Meyer lemon, lite soy and a sprinkling of Goya Adobo  - I stuck the already juiced lemon rinds inside the cavity along with some stick oregano.

Covered it with the clay lod and baked at 350 F for about 45 minutes. 

The meat was lovely - it browned nicely without having to take the lid off the clay baker and it was so tender and juicy it literally fell off the bones. 

I served a half to each and it was so plump, we both saved half of it for sandwiches with cranberry relish and mayo. 

We will be trying this marinade again!

Half a Cornish hen, Medley of Herbed Rice and Wild Rice with Mushrooms and Onions, dressing with dried fruit, summer squash (just because they were so gorgeous), Baked Plantains with brown sugar, butter and liliko'i (passion fruit) juice and homemade Cranberry Relish.

Comments

[Sonia]

Aloha Connie...mahalo nui for your warm words....I am the product of a mixed cultural marriage also. My mom was American from Atlanta, GA with English and Scottish roots and my dad was Cuban born with Spanish roots....so I tend to mix Cuban, Southern US and Hawaiian recipes or else, give a local twist to the old recipes from back home....

I'm saving your blog to my bookmarks....very nice!

[connie]

Thank you for sharing all of your wonderful culinary knowledge. I especially appreciate how you marry your wonderful Cuban heritage with the flavors of Hawaii. I guess this is especially appealing to me as my ethnic heritage is Hawaiian, Chilean, Scottish. My grandmother was Hawaiian/Chilean, her last name was Vida. We always were a little unique among our friends who knew the mix of Asian/Hawaiian or Filipino/Hawaiian, but the Chilean was just a little outside of the box.

I also wanted to share that a few years ago, I found an old ceramic, Japanese "sukiyaki" pot. As I remember from my Japanese "uncle" when I was a little girl, he would cook his sukiyaki over an open fire in this ceramic dish. It's cover is decorated with bamboo and is a beige color, very attractive. What I have found is that this dish works wonderfully as a clay pot, like your chicken is cooked in. I have a feeling that we are going to discover more of these, as that particular art or style of preparing sukiyaki doesn't seem like it is being perpetuated.

Keep up this wonderful blog....and Mahalo!