Stuffed Cornish Hens Recipe - Little Sunny Kitchen (2024)

Impress your guests and serve up these honey-glazed stuffed Cornish hens for all your special occasions! Stuffed with a flavorful wild rice blend sweetened with apples and dried cranberries and with some pecans thrown in for added crunch. These little birds make entertaining so easy!

Chicken is an easy main dish to prepare for weeknight family meals but when you’re looking for something extra special for Thanksgiving or Christmas, for example, these elegant roasted Cornish hens are the way to go!

Perfect for entertaining, these hens are so tender and juicy, and the herby wild rice stuffing is so delicious! I think this is one of the best Cornish hen recipes I’ve tried.

Cornish hens are a variety of young broiler chickens that usually come in around 1–2 pounds each. The meat is very delicate and soft, and its size makes them the perfect serving for one person.

If you’re serving them as part of a larger feast, you can also split them in half after cooking to divide among your guests.

What’s the Best Way to Cook Cornish Hens?

You can cook these hens in any way you would cook regular chicken. I love to cook them on the grill, and have also had great success in air frying cornish hens.

While this is a roasted Cornish hen recipe with stuffing, you can also roast the hens without stuffing them if you prefer.

The tangy sweet honey glaze gives these hens a lovely golden color and it also helps the skin to crisp up. The herby wild rice is studded with apples, dried cranberries, and pecans which is the perfect combination for a fall or winter main dish.

Because the rice is cooked along with the hens, all you have to do is blanch some green beans, or glaze some carrots and you have a full meal to be proud of!

Why You’ll Love This Recipe

1. Tender meat. Cornish hens are young, so typically the meat is tender and has a mild flavor which pairs perfectly with the wild rice stuffing.
2. Great for entertaining. Your guests will be so impressed when you serve each of them their own individually stuffed hen!
3. Less cooking time. The hens cook in about an hour, which is less time than bigger birds, so they make holiday entertaining easy and quick!

key ingredients

Here’s what you need to make stuffed Cornish hens:

Complete list of ingredients and amounts can be found in the recipe card below.

• Whole Cornish Hens: These are a small variety of broiler chicken that weigh between 1–2 pounds each. They make the perfect serving for 1 person. You can find them in grocery stores or at your local butchers. They are sold both fresh and frozen.
• Wild Rice Stuffing: Use a wild rice blend of your choice which we’ll cook in some chicken stock instead of water. You’ll also need onions, celery, garlic, apples (Gala if you can find them or another crisp sweet apple), pecans, and dried cranberries. Fresh herbs like rosemary and thyme give the stuffing a nice savory flavor.
• Honey Glaze: Honey, apple cider, and more rosemary and thyme. The honey caramelizes as the hens roast giving the skin a lovely golden color.

How To Make Stuffed Cornish Hens

There are a few steps to this recipe as you’re making both the rice stuffing and a glaze before cooking the hens, but once your initial prep is done, it’s smooth sailing from there!

1. Cook the Rice. Cook the rice on the stovetop in chicken broth instead of water for extra flavor. Be careful not to overcook it at this stage as it will continue to cook in the oven and you don’t want it mushy. Let it cool uncovered.
2. Make Stuffing. Sauté onions, celery, and garlic in butter until they soften, and the garlic starts to give off its delicious aroma. Transfer them to a bowl and then sauté the apples, pecans, cranberries, and herbs in butter and apple cider. Add the onions, celery, and garlic back into the pan along with the rice, and give everything a good stir to combine.

1. Make Glaze. The glaze is super easy to pull together. All you have to do is add all of the glaze ingredients to a bowl and give it a stir to combine. that’s it!
2. Prepare the Hens. Pat the hens dry and place them in a baking dish fitted with a roasting rack. If you don’t have a rack, you can improvise by roughly chopping some onions and celery and setting the birds on top to roast.
3. Stuff the Hens. Spoon the wild rice stuffing into the cavities of the Cornish hens. You should be able to fit about ½ cup into each one.
4. Truss the Hens. Tuck in the wings and tie the legs closed with some kitchen twine.

1. Roast. Brush the honey glaze all over the hens, then season with salt and pepper. Roast at 425°F/220°C for 20 minutes. Then, brush with the remaining glaze, lower the oven temperature to 350°F/180°C, and continue roasting for an additional 40–50 minutes.
2. Serve. Let the hens rest for 15 minutes before carving and serving with any extra rice.

Recipe Tips

• Avoid overcooking the rice by cutting the cooking time by about 5 minutes and then removing it from the heat to cool uncovered.
• Use the pan juices to make a quick gravy or jus. Add a little bit of liquid to the juices and bring to a boil while scraping up the brown bits at the bottom of the pan. Melt a piece of butter, add 1-2 tablespoons of flour and cook it out. Then add chicken broth, whisk and let everything reduce and thicken.
• Thaw frozen hens before roasting. It will take around 24 hours to defrost a 1.5-pound hen in the refrigerator.
• If the hens are browning too quickly, tent with some foil to prevent burning.
• Use this recipe for whole chickens. If you are just wanting a special occasion dinner but would rather use a regular chicken, have at it!

Storing Tips

Let the stuffed Cornish hens cool completely before storing them in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Store leftover rice in a separate container in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

What To Serve With

Either red or white wine would make a great pairing. In terms of white a Riesling, pinot grigio, or chardonnay would be great. Or try a red cabernet sauvignon.

Serve stuffed Cornish hens with traditional holiday sides like roasted root veggies, roasted sweet potato salad, garlic butter Instant Pot red potatoes, a sweet potato casserole, or these sausage stuffed mushrooms.

FAQs

Make your next gathering special with these delicious stuffed Cornish hens! Save this recipe for the holidays. It’s always nice to try something new!Pin it for more people to enjoy too!