Beer braised Cornish game hens

What’s not to like about anything braised in beer and seasoned with bacon and onions? I could eat the Tea Party were it cooked like that. Well … maybe not, but you get what I mean.

I saw something like this on a cooking show and decided to give it my own twist to just see what would happen. Magic is what happens. This is a knock-out punch ‘sure thing’ for entertaining, and I’m putting it on my list of regular dishes. Funny thing is, it’s not so much effort that you couldn’t do it anytime and not just for company or a special occasion. A bit of advance planning … like marinating the birds the night before, and having beer in the cooler.

We were having guests for dinner, and I did want something kind of special. Game hens seemed to fit the bill.

As you see it here, plated, I have a puree of celeriac (celery root) and new potatoes with some buttery carrot ‘coins’ over the top, then a trio of grilled tomatoes flanking the half Cornish game hen … with lovely beer, shallot and garlic pan juices spooned generously over the top.

Oh, the leaves in front are some sage leaves that I fried in some oil until crispy. It just adds the most heavenly aromas!

Prepping the beer birds requires a little advance work, although nothing too complicated.

First cut the birds in half, working from the backbone through the breast bone with a large chef knife or cleaver. Kitchen poultry shears would’ve worked, but I couldn’t find mine.

I put a small slit in the skin to tuck both the leg end bone into and hold it in place, as well as the wing tip. This keeps them from flopping all over as you turn them during cooking.

You can use any type of beer. I went with a Duckhorn Red Ale, but I think trying it with a Porter might be interesting in the future. Flavored beers or even hard apple or pear ciders would all be first rate choices, I think.

As you can see, down on the left, I have my little food processor bowl all ready with the heart of the marinade:

one half sweet onion, 1 stalk celery, about three cloves garlic, 3 bay leaves, a couple of nice pinches of fresh thyme, rosemary and sage - and the all important parsely stems.

Waste not, want not.

I probably used about 2 to 3 tablespoons of each herb. Process it with olive oil to a paste.

Rub the bird halves generously with the paste, and put them into a glass or other non-reactive container. They can go into the fridge for an hour or even over night.

After the marinating, preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Transfer the birds to a roasting pan or a heavy sautuese pan like you see here. Bard the birds with bacon slices, and toss in about 6 shallots and a bunch of garlic cloves. We love roasted garlic here, and I used probably 8 or 10 cloves.

Pour the beer - one tall can or bottle. I added half the beer at the beginning, and the rest about halfway through the cooking process.

I also added a few sprigs extra of rosemary and thyme.

Turn the birds every 15 minutes, to get an even browness.

These birds needed about 40 minutes to achieve perfection. I pulled them out of the oven and covered them with aluminum foil while I finished the other dishes.

There was plenty of pan juices for everybody.

RATES: Freaking HIGH on the YUM-O-METER.