Rice-Stuffed Cornish Hens

The week after Ruby. The photo shoot finished — Vy handled the final two days at the restaurant while I was at the hospital and at Emma's house. Vy and Emiko flew home to New York Sunday with twelve hundred photographs to sort through and three hundred dishes documented. The book is real on the page now. The first proofs will arrive in four months.

I made freezer meals for Emma — twenty containers, a full week's worth of pho broth (concentrated, frozen flat), four lasagnas, six containers of Vietnamese chicken porridge, eight bricks of bone broth for postpartum recovery (a Vietnamese tradition: new mothers drink bone broth daily for the first month). I delivered the meals Wednesday. Emma was sitting in her recliner with Ruby on her chest. Ava was on the floor with her chef's coat on, "cooking" with her play kitchen. Daniel was in the actual kitchen looking exhausted. I unloaded the freezer meals into their freezer, made coffee, sat on the couch, held Ruby for an hour while Daniel slept. The grandfather job. The job I am uniquely qualified for now.

Mai met Ruby Sunday. She came over to Emma's with Linh. She held the baby. She said, in Vietnamese, "Bao, this baby is beautiful." I said, "I know." She said, "She has Daniel's nose. That is a good nose." She approves of Daniel's family's genes. Ruby slept on Mai's chest for thirty minutes. Mai slept too, in the recliner, with the baby on her. I took a picture. I will not post it on the blog. I will keep it in the wooden box Tyler made me. The box is filling up. The box is the museum of the latter half of my life.

The bone broth and the porridge and the lasagnas are all in Emma’s freezer now, doing their quiet work — but when people ask me what to bring a new mother, I tell them: bring something that requires nothing of her. This rice-stuffed Cornish hen is that kind of dish. It reheats beautifully, it is satisfying in the way that only a proper meal can be, and when Daniel pulls it from the freezer at 9 p.m. with Ruby finally asleep on his chest, he will not have to think. He will just eat. That is the whole point. That is the grandfather job.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 15 min | Total Time: 1 hr 35 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

2 Cornish game hens (about 1 1/2 lbs each), thawed and patted dry
1 cup long-grain white rice, cooked and cooled
1/2 cup low-sodium chicken broth, plus more for basting
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup celery, finely diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, divided
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 tablespoon olive oil
Fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped, for garnish

Instructions

Preheat the oven. Heat your oven to 375°F. Lightly grease a roasting pan or a rimmed baking sheet with a rack.
Build the stuffing. In a skillet over medium heat, melt 1 tablespoon of butter. Add the onion and celery and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and stir in the cooked rice, chicken broth, thyme, rosemary, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Let cool slightly.
Prepare the hens. Season the cavity of each hen with the remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt. Spoon the rice stuffing loosely into each cavity — do not pack tightly, as the rice will expand. Tie the legs together with kitchen twine and tuck the wings under the body.
Rub and roast. Combine the olive oil and remaining 1 tablespoon melted butter. Brush generously over the outside of each hen. Place the hens breast-side up on the prepared rack. Roast for 1 hour to 1 hour 15 minutes, basting with a splash of broth halfway through, until the skin is deep golden and the juices run clear at the thigh joint (internal temperature should reach 165°F).
Rest before serving. Transfer the hens to a cutting board and tent loosely with foil. Rest for 10 minutes before halving or serving whole. Garnish with fresh parsley.
For freezer prep. Cool completely, wrap each stuffed hen tightly in foil, and place in a zip freezer bag. Freeze for up to 3 months. Reheat covered in a 350°F oven for 35—40 minutes until heated through.

Nutrition (per serving)

Rice-Stuffed Cornish Hens — The Meals That Say What Words Cannot