Smoked Cornish Hens

Smoked Cornish hens are a great meal if you are having some guests over and want a menu offering that is a bit unique. They are prefect to serve each guest their own and are relatively quick and easy of a smoked meal.

What Are Cornish Game Hens

Cornish game hens have the obvious appearance of being a small chicken. Reality is they are a crossbred between a Cornish chicken and Rock hen and a Malayan fighting gamecock. They tend to mature quickly and its tender meat and young age give them a unique flavor when compared to chickens.

Usually in the range of 1 lb. they are great for a one per person entrée that will be a delightful pivot from a standard chicken dish.

Easy Cornish Hen Brine

Our first step here is the brine. It is a basic brine but will add a bit of flavor. You are going to need the following for the brine recipe:

• 1 gallon of water
• 1/2 cup of salt
• 1/4 cup of brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp. of all spice

After you have your ingredients mixed, you can add the brine and the birds into a gallon sized Ziploc bag and we are going to let them brine for 5 hours in the refrigerator. A note, frequently the hens are bought frozen so you will need about 2 days to defrost properly.

After 5 hours, you can remove from the brine. You need to pat them dry with a paper towel and then apply a dry rub of your choice. I used Rub Your Chicken dry rub on these hens.

How To Smoke Cornish Hens

When smoking a Cornish hen, you are going to get the smoker running hot on this one. I did this on my Weber Kettle but it should work whether you are using a Traeger pellet grill or some other smoker. We want to get it upwards of 275° but no more than 300°. The goal here is to ensure we get some nice crispy skin on these hens.

Once you are up to temp, go ahead and place them on the smoker. This entire smoke will take about one and a half hours. After about 1 hour in, or when your hit and IT of 130, we are going to baste these hens with some butter. This will help crisp the skin on the hens and keep them moist.

We are going to pull these when the internal temperature reaches 165°. In order to ensure we are hitting 165°, you want to be checking the temperature in the thickest part of the breast. Dark meat whether its in a chicken, turkey or hen can take higher internal temperatures upwards of 175°-180°.

If you are looking for a great meat thermometer when doing smoked Cornish Hens, check out the ThermoPro TP20. It has not disappointed me.

Once the smoked Cornish hens hit 165°, go a ahead and pull them. You can give them a few minutes to rest but feel free to serve these almost immediately.

Wrapping Up Smoked Cornish Hens

These smoked Cornish hens are a wonderful way to mix things up, you can dress these up for a holiday meal or dig in with your fingers on that summer weekend BBQ.

Thanks for being here and checking out this Smoked Cornish Hens recipe. I hope you enjoy it! We always appreciate comments, 5 star recipe rating and social media shares. As always, keep that smoke rolling!

If you are looking for some other recipes, here are some suggestions:

• Stuffed Chicken Thighs Wrapped in Bacon
• Smoked Shrimp and Peach Kabobs
• Grilled Chicken Street Tacos
• Persian Kabobs
• Smoked Boneless Leg of Lamb
• Smoked Chicken Thighs

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