Leave your guests wondering how you can cut into that bird like a meatloaf. Baking without the bones means faster baking time and juicier meat, plus you can cram more stuffing in all those nooks and crannies.
Note - You can do this with any kind of bird the process is the exact same. I usually work with turkey but wanted to try something different this year so I made individual cornish hens. You can use the bones to make an amazing soup (as there will still be plenty of meat you can pull off the bones once they are cooked) or to make a stock for later use.
I know this might seem a little confusing even with all the pictures. I will be putting up a youtube video shortly to give you a better idea of the entire process in case you still have some questions.
What you need:
A Bird (turkey, cornish hen, chicken)
Cooking twine
Knives
Stuffing (Recipe here)
Roasting dish
Salt
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 F (350 for turkey)
Begin by thoroughly washing the bird with cold water. Place your hen breast side down on a cutting board and cut the skin straight down the "spine".
Use one hand holding a knife at a 45 degree angle to slowly cut across the bone and the other to pull the skin and meat away from the bone.
Continue to cut away at the meat until you get to the leg bone. We will be leaving the drumstick bone and the wing bone in to help maintain the shape of the bird when it cooks. If you move the drum stick you will see where the bone meets, it's best to cut at the intersection of the two bones, that way you're not trying to saw through the bone. You will have to cut through some cartilage but the bones should separate fairly easily.
Do the same thing where the wing bone meets the top of the shoulder.
Continue cutting in short cuts around the breast of the bird until the entire ribcage comes out. This part is a bit tricky because the front of the breast has a bone that ribs in and then back out, use your fingers to guide you before cutting.
As you can see from the pictures above, each drumstick is left in tact (the upper thigh bone is removed) and the wing bone is left in tact.
Salt the bird on the inside to taste. Place a few strips of butter across the breast meat and fill with stuffing (homemade stuffing recipe can be found here). You can fill stuffing where the thigh bone was, it'll be a little pocket for more yummy stuffing to hide
Once your bird is sufficiently stuffed wrap one end over the other until they are just slightly overlapped. Place cooking twine under the top part of the bird (but under the wing) and tie a knot.
Wrap the twine around again on the bottom half of the bird. Then wrap the twine across the centre of the bird (where you made the original incision) and bring it around and tie a knot. This should hold your bird together and the stuffing inside as you cook the bird.
Play around with it a little bit if you need to, to ensure that all the skin is overlapped and that the twine is holding everything in place.
Flip your bird over and use a small piece of twine to tie the two legs together. Again this just helps to maintain the shape of the bird as it cooks.
Place your bird into roasting dish (I like to place it atop a rack inside the roasting dish so that the bird is elevated and can roast without sitting in liquid). Sprinkle the top of your bird with salt and drizzle with oil.
lace uncovered in the oven (unless you are using a turkey, the turkey should be covered until almost cooked then the cover should be removed to finish roasting).
The cook times vary, but the internal temperature for poultry should be 165 F. The cornish hens took 1 & 1/2 hours to finish cooking while remaining very juicy. Remember because there are no bones the cook times are slightly lower.
Baste the birds as needed until they reach a perfectly golden colour and are cooked through. Carefully remove from the oven and cut away the twine. Allow it to rest for 10 minutes before cutting so that the juices will not run.
his is such a fantastic way to serve a bird especially when you have company, I always receive so many compliments and people are always amazed that you can cut right through the bird rather than carving it.
CORNISH HEN
