Rock Cornish Hen – Stuffed with Boudin

I have cooked these in the past and always thought they were a game bird.  The name I knew them by was “Cornish Game Hen”.  I was curious to see what these little tasty birds looked like and low and behold I discovered they are JUST

"a young immature chicken (less than five weeks of age), weighing not more than two pounds ready-to-cook weight, which was prepared from a Cornish chicken or the progeny of a Cornish chicken crossed with another breed of chicken.” According to Wikipedia .  Wow I am really disappointed, Thought I was being treated to something special.  Instead, a normal overpriced baby chicken, but what the hell, paid for them, gotta eat them.  So I am going to spruce them up a bit and season them Cajun style and stuff them with some bulk boudin I had in the freezer.

I will thaw out the”chickens” and put them in a bowl of salt water for about 15 minutes.   They will then be dried inside and out.  I will lather them in oil and sprinkle them with some of my own Cajun spice mix.  I will mix the boudin with a little more salt pepper and garlic and stuff the birds and roast them in the oven at 425 F for 15 minutes then turned heat down to 355 f until I get an internal temp of 165 – 175 F.  Look here to learn how to truss a bird properly.  I put a probe into 1 of the birds to get an internal temp reading because they are stuffed and I heard stuffing could become contaminated if not at the right temp.

For those of you who dont know what boudin is, it is a Cajun sausage and loved by the people of Louisiana who consume this at breakfast, lunch and dinner and snack times!  Boudin is pronounced like “Boo Dan”  I had bought some at The Best Stop just off the I-10.  I misprounced the name and everyone around me, looked at me, and someone said, “yup another tourist”. 

Dinner turned out good, the baby chicken was tender and moist,  the boudin as a stuffing was very good as was the Cajun spices I put on the bird.  The other one will be for lunch tomorrow.