Roast Guinea Hen Recipes

ROASTED GUINEA HEN

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the guinea hen in an iron skillet large enough for it to fit or in a heavy roasting dish. (Enameled cast iron is best.) Using your hands, rub 2 teaspoons of the olive oil all over the bird, inside and out. Season again all over with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with thyme leaves. Scatter the garlic cloves around the pan.
• Place in the oven and roast 15 minutes. Drizzle with the remaining olive oil and roast, basting every 10 minutes with pan drippings, until a thermometer inserted in the thickest part of the thigh reads 160 degrees; this should take 40 to 50 minutes.
• Remove the hen from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Drain excess fat (leaving some!) from the pan and place over medium-high heat. Pour in the chicken broth. Using a wooden spoon, scrape up the pan drippings and bring to a boil. Reduce until the sauce is syrupy. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cut the hen into 6 pieces and pour the juices from the cutting board back into the sauce. Serve on a platter and pass the sauce with a big spoon.

ROASTED GUINEA HENS WITH WHOLE-GRAIN MUSTARD AND HERBS

Steps:

• Cook garlic and potatoes:
• Fill a 3-quart saucepan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Add garlic and simmer 5 minutes. Remove garlic with a slotted spoon and reserve. Add potatoes to water with bay leaf and salt to taste, then simmer, covered, 10 minutes (potatoes will not be fully cooked). Cool potatoes in hot water, uncovered, then drain and peel.
• Make mustard butter and prepare hens while potatoes are cooling:
• Put a 17- by 11-inch roasting pan in middle of oven and preheat oven to 425°F.
• Melt 1 tablespoon butter and set aside. Mash together mustard, chives, remaining 5 tablespoons butter, and salt and pepper to taste. Reserve 1 tablespoon mustard butter for sauce.
• Remove excess fat from cavities and necks, then rinse hens and pat dry. Run your finger between skin and flesh of breast and legs of each hen to loosen skin (outsides of thighs are easier to access from neck end). Push mustard butter under skin and massage skin from outside to spread butter evenly over breast and legs. Season hens inside and out with salt and pepper and put half of herb stems in cavity of each bird. Tie legs together with kitchen string and close cavity with toothpicks.
• Brush melted butter over hens.
• Roast hens:
• Remove roasting pan from oven and add oil, tilting to coat. Put hens in pan, breast sides up, and scatter potatoes and shallots around them. Roast hens, basting every 10 minutes with a brush and turning vegetables, 30 minutes. Scatter reserved garlic and thyme leaves around hens and roast, basting frequently and turning vegetables, until a thermometer inserted in thickest part of a thigh (without touching bone) registers 170°F and vegetables are tender, 20 to 30 minutes more (30 to 40 minutes more for chickens). Discard string and toothpicks from hens and transfer hens to a platter. Surround with vegetables and keep warm, loosely covered, while making sauce.
• Make sauce:
• Skim fat from pan juices and add chicken broth, then deglaze by boiling, scraping up brown bits, until reduced to about 1/2 cup. Pour sauce through a sieve into a sauceboat and stir in reserved tablespoon mustard butter with salt and pepper to taste.
• Chop tarragon and parsley leaves and scatter over hens and vegetables. Serve with sauce.

ROAST GUINEA HEN WITH GRILLED RADICCHIO

Steps:

• Heat oven to 400 degrees. Pat guinea hen dry and season generously inside and out with salt and pepper. Put garlic, rosemary and lemon slices inside the bird's cavity. Tie legs together. Leave at room temperature for at least an hour (or refrigerate overnight and bring to room temperature).
• Put a rack in a roasting pan, and place bird on its side on the rack. Drape pancetta strips, if using, over bird. Roast, uncovered, for 20 minutes, then turn the bird on its other side and roast 20 minutes more. (Remove and reserve pancetta when crisp, about 20 minutes into roasting. Chop and sprinkle over for final garnish.) Turn the bird breast side up and roast for a final 20 minutes, or until juice run clear when thickest part of the thigh is probed. Baste well with pan juices at each stage. Let rest in a warm place at least 15 minutes before carving. Spoon pan juices over the meat.
• For the grilled radicchio, place a stove top grill over medium-high heat. Cut radicchio into 8 wedges. Season with salt and pepper and paint lightly with olive oil. Grill wedges for 3 to 4 minutes per side, until well colored and crisped. Alternatively, grill radicchio under the broiler.

ONE-POT ROAST GUINEA FOWL

Steps:

• Heat oven to 180C/160C fan/gas 4. Toss the vegetables with the oil and some seasoning in a large flameproof roasting tin. Place the bird on top of the veg, smear with 1 tbsp butter and lay the rashers in a row over the breast. Season generously, then roast for 40 mins.
• Remove from the oven and give the veg a stir while adding the garlic and thyme. Pour 200ml stock and the wine over the veg and return to oven to roast for another 40 mins until the bird is cooked through and the juices run clear.
• Remove the bird, place on a serving plate, cover with foil to keep warm and leave to rest. Turn the oven up to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 and roast the veg for a further 15 mins until tender.
• Remove the veg with a slotted spoon and transfer to the serving plate with the bird. Mix 2 tsp butter and flour in a small bowl to form a smooth paste. Place the roasting tin with all the cooking juices, plus any resting juices, on the hob. Whisk the paste and redcurrant jelly into the juices until dissolved, then add the remaining stock and extra seasoning, if you like. Bubble for a few mins until the sauce thickens. Slice and serve the guinea fowl, crisp bacon and the veg with the sauce on the side.

ROAST GUINEA FOWL

Steps:

• Heat oven to 450 degrees.
• Wash birds and pat dry. Gently loosen the skin of each fowl's breast and place flat-leaf parsley leaves under it. Fill birds with stuffing, truss with butcher's twine, and place in a foil-lined roasting pan. Melt butter and brush birds; sprinkle with salt and pepper, and surround with the chervil, parsley, and garlic.
• Roast for 15 minutes. Add wine to pan and brush birds again with melted butter. Reduce heat to 400 degrees and roast for 1 hour. Cover with foil and roast for 15 to 30 minutes more.

ROAST GUINEA HEN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Wash hen and lard with salt pork.
• Fill with stuffing of your choice.
• Close opening and truss.
• Place breast-side down in an uncovered roasting pan.
• Place in oven for an hour, then turn breast-side up and cook until tender, about one more hour, basting every half hour.