let's cook: a small lil chicken for one

and olive oil vs butter, what's better?

i don’t really like the big ass roast turkey. the thanksgiving turkey to be more specific. in the past, i’ve asked my mom (who is usually in charge of the turkey while my brother and i are in charge of the sides for ‘thanksgiving dinner’ that isn’t really for thanksgiving because we don’t celebrate it) to make me a cornish game hen instead. one year she did and she burnt it to a crisp and the other years, she would skip it all together due to being distracted and forgetful while trying to get the turkey just right. a couple years ago, when i was still teaching myself how to cook, i tried roasting a chicken for the first time but i accidentally roast it upside down. i also didn’t cook it very well. ethan makes an excellent brined roasted chicken which he has relayed the recipe to me so many times (and has told me it’s very easy but easy for ethan is different for me) but his process of spatchcocking and a 24 hour brining seems intimidating and too time consuming.

sometime last week, i woke up and spontaneously decided i wanted to roast cornish game hen. they are tiny, individual sized and simple to roast. i wanted to make it a whole meal with roasted cipollini onions, baby yukon golds and nantes carrots i have fallen in love with the last couple weeks. i wanted my house to smell like a country home if that makes any sense. somewhere in the countryside, cozy and warm.

the next morning, i got out of bed, made a quick coffee, brushed my teeth, threw on sweatpants over my pajamas and sunglasses on my face and drove to the grocery store at 9 am which was right when it opened. i bought two cornish game hen for $16.99 each and i didn’t know if that was expensive or well priced but i figured everything is expensive these days so it probably is quite expensive. i also bought chives, a bundle of rosemary, yukon ‘class c’ golds, a handful of cipollini onions, nantes carrots, little gems, a heavy head of white garlic, radishes, isigny salted butter and allium flowers for my kitchen table. i also learned that early morning grocery shopping with people three times my age is a very peaceful experience. it felt like we were all kind of waking up together and i found myself more curious about people’s carts and baskets; what are you cooking today that made you want to get to the store right when it opened?

i decided i wanted to make an herb butter with chives and rosemary for one game hen and use olive oil with salt and pepper for the other. i wanted to see which would make a better roasted chicken with really crispy skin...

mom was team olive oil

this is how i made two very simple cornish game hen that require very little cooking skill, to be honest, but made for such a good and comforting meal. and, which was the winner for crispy skin? olive oil or butter?

*i’m sorry, i know there are probably a hundred, if not thousands, of articles about olive oil vs butter but i didn’t read them and i didn’t research this beforehand so i went into this very naive!

what you need:

1 or 2 cornish game hen

1 lb of yukon golds, peeled and parboiled

1/2 lb cipollini onions, peeled

1 bunch of carrots, washed and peeled

olive oil

flaky salt

freshly cracked pepper

for the herb butter:

salted butter of your choosing at room temp

1 bunch of chives, finely chopped

2 tbs of rosemary, finely minced

1 tsp lemon zest

3 cloves of garlic, roughly or finely chopped

in a small bowl, combine the butter and finely chopped chives and minced rosemary with the garlic and black pepper. set aside.

preheat the oven to 400 degrees. line a roasting pan with parchment paper. unwrap each cornish game hen from it’s packaging and pat each hen with some paper towel so it’s dry before you start seasoning and dressing it.

for one hen, rub the herb butter all over and in the inside cavity. for the other, drizzle with a generous amount of olive oil all over and also in the inside cavity. season with a lot of black pepper and flaky salt. i melted the leftover herb butter to drizzle over the vegetables for roasting. i’ve seen hens tied by string around their legs before roasting but i definitely did not do that. i’m not sure if that makes a difference or not but…

roast for 40 or 45 minutes. the chickens will be a lovely golden brown and if you have a meat thermometer, the internal temperataure should read 165*. let it rest for a few minutes before enjoying!!

between the two hens, i love how the olive oil roasted hen came out a hundred times more than the herb butter one. the olive oil made the skin so crispy which is one of my favorite things. the herb butter didn’t quite get the skin crispy which i found a little surprising. but i just love how simple and delicious olive oil, salt and pepper are together. i have learned that i am simply an olive oil girl when it comes to a roast chicken; salted butter any other time though.

the hen, with the roasted potatoes, onions and carrots with a simple little gems salad that was brightened from a hefty squeeze of lemon juice made it one of those meals where it just feels right and makes you feel really happy. i love meals like that. i think that’s one of the things i truly love about cooking. something as simple and mundane as a roasted hen has the ability to make you really feel something. it’s beautiful.

i hope you make this and if you do, i want to know if you are team olive oil or team butter!

xo