Thank you Tyson, Kikkoman, and Walmart for sponsoring these tasty How To Grill Cornish Hens post. All ideas and opinions are always 100% my own. #JuicyGrilledCornish #CollectiveBias
Have you ever tried making a Cornish hen? If not, don’t let the intimidating name fool you!
Cornish hens are very easy to cook, and are very delicious grilled! A Cornish hen is a young chicken that usually weighs around 2 lbs.
Today I’m going to show you how to grill a Tyson® Cornish Hen. These are all natural with no artificial ingredients, no preservatives, and no added hormones or steroids. There are a few advantages to grilling these birds over cooking them another way.
First, you can’t beat that delicious smoky grilled flavor that the grill provides. Second, cooking Cornish hens on the grill is basically hands off, which means less prep time for you. Third, you don’t have to heat up your kitchen to make a delicious dinner that the whole family will love since you’re grilling outside, which is great for those hot summer days when the last thing that you want is a hot oven!
Since the Cornish hens need to lay as flat as possible on the grill, you will need to do a little prep work to open them up and get them as flat as possible. You can cut either the back or the belly of the bird, but we prefer to cut the belly, so I’ll show you how to do it this way.
You can use a knife or kitchen shears to cut. Cut a straight line down the middle of the belly and lay the open bird flat. The belly has less bones to cut through so it’s easier to cut and it opens up nicely for grilling.
Press the bird with your hands to get it as flat as possible. You can choose to leave the skin on or take it off, as well as to leave the wings on or off. Wee cooked our Cornish hens differently to try each way, and honestly I didn’t have a preference for wings on or off. If you take the skin off it’s less work when you go to eat the hen, since the skin is already off, but some like to cook it with the skin on. Whichever you prefer!
Marinating your bird will keep it moist and juicy and will give it added flavor. I marinated each of our Cornish hens in a big gallon-size zip top plastic bag for a few hours in the refrigerator with 1 cup of Kikkoman® Teriyaki Sauce.
You can always find Kikkoman Teriyaki Sauce in our refrigerator because our family uses it weekly! We buy it at Walmart while we are already there doing our other shopping. Kikkoman sauces are great on all different types of food, not just Asian food.
My kids love it on their rice, I like to marinate chicken and Cornish hens in it, and then we use the thicker Kikkoman Teriyaki Basting Sauce as a dipping sauce for our meat. Both sauces are SO good, and add great flavor to our meals.
You can also personalize your teriyaki dipping sauce if you would like by adding fresh minced garlic for added flavor, crushed red peppers for some heat, sliced green onions, and more!
I grilled the Cornish hens for about 10 minutes on each side on a medium-high grill. Each grill varies, but you will know your birds are done when the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees F.
You really should try grilling Cornish hens. It’s so easy to do, and our entire family loved them! The meat had a nice subtle teriyaki flavor due to the marinade, and a bolder flavor once dipped into the teriyaki dipping sauce. YUM!
Even my younger kids who were a bit skeptical after hearing the name LOVED our dinner. What Kikkoman sauce would you love to try with grilled Cornish hens?
Happy grilling!
