These turned out awesome! We ate them with our hands only using a spoon to laddle the sauce over the hens. Ryan was cracking me up because we were eating these with our hands over candle light he said he felt like he was eating at the romantic Medieval Times.I got this recipe for the hens from the Intercourses; An Aphrodisiac Cookbook however I didn't really care for the sauce as the cookbook called for it. But it did remind me of a similar recipe I had tried before from Cooking Light so I decided to combine them. The store was out of thyme so I used Rosemary instead but I think it would have been so much tastier with the thyme. Also I coudn't find a Thai chile so I ended up using a Japanese chile, however that really didn't add the heat I was looking for, so I ended up opening the chile to release the seeds but that still didn't cut through the sweetness of the jam. But that still didn't do it, so I ended up mixing in some crushed red pepper flakes and that did the trick.
Cornish Hens with Strawberry-Balsamic Sauce
Adapted from Intercourses; An Aphrodisiac Cookbook & Cooking Light Magazine
For the hens
2 Cornish Hens
2 Tablespoons olive oil
2 Sprigs of Rosemary
Salt & freshly ground pepper to taste
For the Sauce:
1/2 cup seedless strawberry jam
1 1/2 tbspns balsamic
1 tbspns white wine
1/4 tspn ground pepper
1/4 tspn salt
1 dry Thai chile
1/2 cup finely chopped shallot
1 1/2 tspns minced Rosemary
1 fresh strawberry
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Rub the hens with the olive oil and seson generously, inside and out, with salt and pepper. Place 1 sprig of rosemary into each cavity. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine. Place the hens,k breast-side up, on a wire rack set over a baking sheet and roast untilt he juices run clear or a thermmeter registers 165 degrees in the thigh about 25 to 35 minutes.
While the hens are roasting, prepare the sauce. combine the strawberry jam, vinegar, wine, pepper, and salt in a samll saucepan set over medium heat. As the jam begins to melt, add the Thai chile and let steep for 5 minutes. Taste the sauce, if you prefer something spicier, cut the chile in half and stir the sauce to distribute the fire. Remove the pepper when the desired spiciness is reached. Pour sauce into serving dish. Chop strawberry and add to sauce. Serve as a sauce for the hens.
