This Cranberry Orange Glazed Cornish Hen recipe is perfect for holiday family dinners. Learn how to cook Cornish hens so they turn out juicy and flavorful every single time.
My favorite protein to cook in the holiday season is chicken as it tends to be overlooked when beef and turkey end up in many holiday celebrations. We have so many tasty chicken recipes on the blog and some of our favorites are chicken shawarma, zereshk polo morgh and Mediterranean garlic chicken.
If you're looking for delicious dishes that you can serve when having company, this Cornish game hen recipe is it! I'm going to show you how to cook Cornish hens with an orange cranberry glaze at home and wow everyone. I love making this dish for the holidays because it looks very festive and beautiful on individual plates.
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About this recipe
This is an easy, quick recipe for juicy Cornish hens that comes together in no time. It's very flavorful and delicious. You only require a few ingredients and it's packed with orange cranberry flavor - perfect for this holiday season.
This recipe is so simple to make yet taste and look as if you have spent half of the day in the kitchen preparing them. They are perfect for the holidays because of their festive flavors. Cranberry and orange combine so well together and once mixed with soy sauce, the flavors shine more which will result in a delicious dish that your family will love!
What's the difference between Cornish hen and chicken?
The main difference is in size. While a mature Cornish hen usually weighs less than 2 pounds, it's smaller than a whole chicken which usually weighs about 4-5 pounds.
Since Cornish hens are small, they're always sold and cooked whole whereas you can buy chicken whole or cut into pieces. Check out this article about Cornish hen vs chicken for more information.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Cornish hen: Use ones that are not too big or too small. If using frozen ones, let them thaw in the fridge before you start cooking.
- Soy sauce: You can use regular or low sodium soy sauce for this recipe.
- Orange juice: It's best to use freshly squeezed orange juice for this recipe.
- Cranberries: This recipe calls for fresh cranberries. It's possible to use frozen cranberries as well but dried cranberries won't work.
Instructions
Cranberry orange glaze
The main flavor of this dish comes from a festive and bright orange glaze flavored with fresh cranberries. To make the glaze, follow these steps:
- In a saucepan, stir soy sauce, orange juice, cornstarch and water together.
- Add the brown sugar and cranberries. Turn the heat to medium high.
- Bring the mixture to simmer and turn the heat to medium low, cook until the cranberries pop and the glaze thickens.
The glaze will thicken even more when it cools. You can even make the glaze a day ahead and use it when you're ready to roast the Cornish hens.
Roast the cornish hen
- Start with pat drying the birds, this will absorb any extra moisture. This step is essential to make sure the game hen will have a beautifully roasted skin after cooking.
- Make the glaze using soy sauce, orange juice and cranberries.
- Brush the glaze all over the Cornish hens and roast them in the oven at 400ºF until done and fully cooked. You can glaze them again halfway so they're very flavorful.
Serving suggestions
I served this dish with Panko crusted roasted potatoes. These potatoes are very simple and easy to make. All you need to do is to cut up some russet potatoes and mix them with salt, olive oil and Panko Bread Crumbs.
These potatoes also need to be roasted at 400 degrees F so if you have enough space in the oven, you can pop these in 25 minutes before the Cornish hens are ready. They make a simple yet very tasty side dish for almost any dish.
Other side dishes you can make to serve with this orange glazed Cornish hen are:
- Mediterranean oven roasted vegetables
- Garlic oven roasted brussel sprouts
- Instant pot brown rice
- Cucumber tomato avocado salad
Frequently asked questions
Cornish hens are small enough that one can be served for each person. However, if you're serving two types of food or having appetizers and side dishes such as potatoes and rice, half of a cornish game hen would perfectly do for one person.
After almost 40 minutes of cooking, insert a meat thermometer in the thigh of the bird if it registers at 165 degrees F, the chicken is ready. The breast would also register at 170 degrees F.
It usually takes forty five to fifty five minutes to cook one Cornish hen. It would take just as long if you decide to multiply this recipe.
You can make the glaze ahead of time but the chicken is best served immediately after it's roasted.
Variations
Another way to cook this recipe is to make stuffed Cornish hen. You can stuff the birds with cooked rice or quinoa, onions, celery, garlic, bell peppers (capsicum) and even beans.
Once you stuff the bird, proceed with the Cornish chicken recipe as mentioned in the instructions. You need to be very careful when stuffing Cornish hen because the skin in very thin and can rip easily.
Notes and tips
- It's very important to have your birds cleaned and completely pat dried. The dryness would result in a very crispy skin at the end of cooking.
- The Cornish hen recipe calls for brushing the birds twice with the glaze. You can do this up to 4 times if you would like a darker color on the bird.
- The onions at the bottom of the baking dish will be caramelized and flavored with the glaze. They're going to be very delicious so don't leave them out.
- If Cornish hens are not available where you live, simply use a whole chicken and follow the exact same steps of this recipe. Make sure the chicken is fully cooked by inserting a meat thermometer into the thighs. It should register at 165F. Then insert the thermometer into the breast. It should register at 170F.
- For the Panko crusted roasted potatoes, I used russet potatoes but red potatoes or Yukon gold would work perfectly, too.
More Chicken Recipes
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Step-by-Step Recipe
Cranberry Orange Glazed Cornish Hens
Ingredients
Orange Glazed Cornish Hens:
- 2 Cornish Hens
- ⅓ cup Kikkoman® Soy Sauce
- ½ cup Orange Juice
- ⅓ cup Water
- 1 tbsp Corn Starch
- 2 tablespoon Brown Sugar
- 1 cup Fresh Cranberries
- 1 White Onion
Panko Crusted Roasted Potatoes:
- 3 Russet Potatoes washed and dried
- 2 tablespoon Olive Oil
- ¾ cup Kikkoman® Panko Bread Crumbs
- 1 tsp Salt
Instructions
Orange Glazed Cornish Hens:
- Preheat the oven to 400F. Pat dry the cornish hens, clean the inside and generously sprinkle some salt inside and on them. Set aside.
- In a sauce pan, pour Kikkoman® soy sauce and orange juice. Mix the water and corn starch together and pour into the sauce pan.
- Add brown sugar and cranberries. Bring to simmer and let cook until the cranberries start popping and the glaze thickens.
- Slice the onion into thin rings and place them at the bottom of an oven safe dish. Place the cornish hens on the onions and brush with the cranberry orange glaze.
- Roast in the oven for 25 minutes at 400°F. Brush again with the glaze and roast for another 25 minutes. If the cornish hens are browned and beautiful, cover them with aluminum foil and roast so they don't burn.
- Check the cornish hens using a thermometer. The thighs should register at 165F and the breast should register at 170°F.
- If you have oven space, you can make the panko crusted roasted potatoes at the same time.
Panko Crusted Roasted Potatoes:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat with non stick spray. Cut the russet potatoes into chunks and place them in a bowl.
- Add in olive oil and stir until the potatoes are coated.
- Add in Kikkoman® Panko bread crumbs and toss to cover the potatoes. Transfer the potatoes to the baking sheet and roast in the oven for 25-30 minutes until soft on the inside and golden brown.
- Serve with cranberry orange glazed cornish hens.
Notes
- It's very important to have your birds cleaned and completely pat dried. The dryness would result in a very crispy skin at the end of cooking.
- The Cornish hen recipe calls for brushing the birds twice with the glaze. You can do this up to 4 times if you would like a darker color on the bird.
- The onions at the bottom of the baking dish will be caramelized and flavored with the glaze. They're going to be very delicious so don't leave them out.
- If Cornish hens are not available where you live, simply use a whole chicken and follow the exact same steps of this recipe. Make sure the chicken is fully cooked by inserting a meat thermometer into the thighs. It should register at 165F. Then insert the thermometer into the breast. It should register at 170F.
- For the Panko crusted roasted potatoes, I used russet potatoes but red potatoes or Yukon gold would work perfectly, too.
Nutrition
This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #SeasonYourHolidays #CollectiveBias
Alex
Hi Shadi! I made these last night and they were great, eventually. I glazed too many times during cooking--using a terribly unreliable oven in my temporary apt in NYC--so I had to cook them for a very long time. But that is on me...flavor was delicious.
Here is my question: I am doing this insane Master Chef Challenge in Feb and I have to cook for 18 (!) people, and I actually think hens are a great option. With two kitchens and three ovens at my disposal I can fire them all at the same time. But I am worried about glazing them all during cooking. If I were to just make the hens WITHOUT glazing during cooking, but drizzle the glaze on the birds when they are done and serve extra on the side, how would you rec I season the hens for cooking? Just salt and pepper, maybe a little smoked paprika? I don't want to overcomplicate the flavors.
Any insight would be helpful, and thanks for the great recipe!
P.S. We had one vegetarian and I made a mini Beyond Meat meatloaf using your glaze as the topping and it was FAB!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Hi Alex, glad you enjoyed the recipe! To make a big batch of this recipe (18 people sounds awesome, I love cooking for crowds!) it's best if you make a rub using brown sugar, salt and pepper with some olive oil, rub this mixture very well all over the birds. If you can glaze them at least once before they're out of the oven, it would be ideal. Good luck!
Gayle
Can these be stuffed. These sound wonderful!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Yes! Please check out the "variation" section to see how to stuff the cornish hens 🙂
Mary Beth Einerson
Delicious! I was only cooking for 4 and limited to a Wolf toaster oven for Thanksgiving. A good friend said she had seen cranberry glazed game hen on a episode of Chopped that looked great, so I went looking and found you! Loved the combo of soy sauce, orange juice and cranberries. Just the right amount of sweet, fruity and salty. Especially loved roasting on top of the sliced onion. Served with with a wild rice side instead of potatoes. There was even enough leftover glaze to give the same treatment to some chicken breasts later in the week!
Ingrid
Thank you for the great recipe! I've made these several times now, and they always come out yummy! My son has asked for the recipe, and he makes these now too. The first time I made them, the onions didn't cook enough for me - I am extremely sensitive to onions. So the next day when we were going to have the leftovers (we each only ate half a hen) I simmered the onions in a little broth to cook them more. They were soooo good - we ended up adding more broth and making onion soup out of them! An extra special treat. Now I uses extra onions deliberately and we plan to have onion soup for dinner the next day.
Wendy
Don’t have whole cranberries in house. Can I use cranberry sauce?
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Absolutely!
Madeline
Looks amazing- I plan on trying this recipe over the holidays. How much cornstarch should I use?
Thanks!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Thank you Madeline, you need one tablespoon cornstarch for this recipe. Enjoy!
karen
Where did you get your little cast iron dishes these are in
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
I got them from a lodge shop a few years ago but I think you can also order them online!
Jennifer Farley
Absolutely delicious! Everyone should make this for their family, it's that amazing!
Jessica
Cornish hens are one of my favorite proteins to use and I forget about them all the time. I saw this photo and it inspired me. They were wonderful!!!
Sharon
This is a nice recipe! I want to try this too. Thanks for sharing!
Arghavan
Amazing! I made these last night and served them with zereshk polo, Soo good!
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Glad you like these! Cornish hen is so good!
Nia
Made them but next time I’ll omit the soy sauce. Otherwise delish.
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Glad you liked them! 🙂
Paula Ashford
OMG this looks so good. I want to makes this for Christmas....
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Hope you love them! They're always a hit! 🙂
Amber Edwards
Wow, these Cornish Hens look out of this world amazing! I can't wait to try them! #client
Shadi HasanzadeNemati
Glad you like these!