Never Truss a Game Hen

Today was our day for le rotir, which means 'to roast'. We roasted a cornish game hen. These little suckers that have found ways to confound me for years. When you buy them, they are frozen. Like a rock. When you cook them, they dry out rather quickly or never seem to cook enough. So we learned how to cook them the classic French way. We stuff them with mira poix, (onion, celery and carrot) and then truss (tie) them up. I had to laugh as our Chef was talking about the hen and trussing it, the innuendo's that were flying around were funny. Locker room humor does exist in the kitchen. Even our Chef was laughing. So I truss up the hen after stuffing it with mira poix. Place it in a 350 oven along with another bird at the same time. Take it's temperature and see that it's 155 degrees internal temp. Take it out to rest and get on with fabricating a whole chicken.

Buying cut up chickens is expensive. It takes about 2 to 3 minutes to fabricate, or cut, a chicken into parts. Ah, but the secret is to know where to cut and what not to waste. We also had to airline the breast ( french the wing bone to the first joint) and make a breast supreme (boneless). Cut a leg thigh combo and separate leg from thigh. The interesting thing about fabricating a chicken is you never ever cut a bone. The joints are in locations that make fabrication rather easy.

So my game hen has rested. We roast (le rotir) a bunch of root veggies and make a pan sauce. The girl I'm working with takes her hen up just before me for the Chefs critique. Her game hen is cooked perfect. Mind you, our hens went in together and came out together. Mine, was so under cooked, it looked like it was still able to give blood to the Red Cross.

I just can't truss them hens.