The Many Lives of a Game Hen

This week I cut up a Cornish game hen from Greens, Eggs, and Ham. Cornish game hens are a special breed of chicken that is usually slaughtered while still very young (five weeks or less) so that the meat is especially delicate. They are therefore usually very small, maybe a pound for a whole bird. This game hen was massive: I didn't weigh it, but I would guess that it was well over five pounds. Happily I was able to try a few different poultry dishes with this one bird.


Part I: The Thighs and Legs

My first preparation was a ballotine. A portion of meat is boned^* to make a single, flat sheet of flesh, which is then rolled around a stuffing, cooked, and served hot or cold.

* "Boning" is the removal of bones from meat. The modern English speaker has extreme difficulty with this word, and so "de-boning" is becoming the more common verb.

Here is the leg and thigh:


To bone the meat, make a cut to expose the length of the leg bone, which should then separate fairly easily from the flesh.



Repeat the process for the thigh bone. The thigh bone doesn't release as easily as the leg bone, so you'll have to cut it out of the flesh. Also, there are several tendons where the leg bone used to be that should be removed. They look like shiny, white bands.

Save the bones and trim.



I made a simple stuffing of onions and celery sautéed in butter, with fresh bread crumbs and wild rice.


Traditionally, ballotines are tied with cheesecloth and twine. If your ballotines fit tightly enough in your baking vessel, they will hold their shape without string.


As a final flourish, I wrapped my ballotines in caul. Caul is a fatty membrane that surrounds the stomach of animals. Several charcuterie items, like free-form sausages, are wrapped in caul, which bastes the meat during cooking and helps it keep its shape.

The caul isn't necessary in this case, as the thigh and leg meat is already quite fatty. Even so, I had caul fat on hand, so I figured I'd take the opportunity to use it.


Cook until chicken reaches temperature and the skin is thoroughly browned.