Cornish game hens tonight..crispy skins on mes.

[tpalmen]

View media item 262192
Dry rub of paprika, onion pwd, sugar, s/p, cumin.  Rest in fridge for couple hrs.  Put in mes cold then set to 275 with hickory chips and mesquite.  Lots of smoke, added more chips after about one hour.  Basted hens with an orange juice reduction at ~140 degrees.  Cooked to 165 after about 2 hours and here's the result. Skins are actually crispy and the meat was oozing juices, so yummy.

 

[ksmoker]

Looks really good, great job

 

[tpalmen]

Thanks, this site has a lot of traffic..I posted late and still got looks.

 

[chef jimmyj]

They look great. Does your MES run a true 275° or a little hotter?...JJ

 

[mdboatbum]

Those look awesome!! I like the idea of the orange juice reduction. Seems like it would almost give a caramel/honey glaze effect depending on how much it was reduced. Thanks for the idea!!

 

[woodcutter]

Beautiful birds!

 

[smokinhusker]

Those look fantastic and the orange juice reduction would be a nice addition. I use OJ in my poultry brine.

Your MES must run hot - my MES set at 275° only gets up to about 255-260°

 

[dan - firecraft]

Nice looking hens!

 

[pearlheartgtr]

Very nice! I've been toying with tossing some game hens into my MES. The crispy skins don't surprise me at all. The very first thing I smoked was a chicken and it came out beautiful with a crispy skin, that is until I tented it in foil to rest. The condensation turned the skin to rubber.

 

[jerry reddick]

Oh My!  Those look absolutely lovely!  Thanks for Sharing!

 

[foamheart]

Those looks amazin! Do not believe I ever saw game hens that big! Oooooo.... is that your smoking notebook there too? 

 

[kathrynn]

Those are Beautiful!

Kat

 

[dirtsailor2003]

Tasty looking chicks!

 

[tpalmen]

I haven't checked the actual temp vs digital reading, on my to do list for next smoke.  The hens were under 2 lbs, the picture just made em look bigger.  What I did for the reduction was 1 shallot as small as I could dice it sauted in butter until soft.  I added 1 cup chicken stock and juice from 3 oranges (just under a cup).  Reduced until slightly syrupy.  Off heat.  Added 2 T apple cider vinegar and splash of tabasco.  Good stuff.

 

[disco]

Great looking birds. I wouldn't mind one of those right now. Thanks for posting.

Disco

 

[desertdenizen]

Please pardon my ignorance, but WTF is an MES?

 

[disco]

 
Please pardon my ignorance, but WTF is an MES?

A mess short of one s. Sorry, it is a Masterbuilt Electric Smoker.

 

[humdinger]

 
Please pardon my ignorance, but WTF is an MES?

LOL - this literally made me laugh. And no, I'm not laughing at you, it's just that not too much swearing goes on in this forum so the "WTF" kinda caught me off guard. Thanks for the chuckle Desert.

Yeah this forum has lots o' acronyms (SPOG) and initialisms (ECB, WSM, etc..) It took me about 4 months to finally say AMZNPS correctly every time!

This should help you out. http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/a/acronyms

Lastly, thanks TPalmen for the reduction recipe. Sounds and looks SO GOOD!

 

[schmitzmoke]

Try the hens on an 8oz beer can, it works great,,,, Beer Butt Hens!

WP_20130720_003.jpg

• schmitzmoke
• Jul 30, 2013

 

[foamheart]

And you used Butt Lite cans too...