Dr. Pepper Glazed Cornish Hen

Last weekend, my wife took me up on my challenge for her to adapt a brownie recipe to include Dr. Pepper. While I do most of the cooking, she does most of the baking that happens in our house. In addition to the brownie itself, she prepared a Dr. Pepper frosting to top the treat. They were delicious, and they inspired me to challenge myself to include Dr. Pepper in a main course in some way. The result; Dr. Pepper Glazed Cornish Hen.


Cornish hens are rather fun to cook. They don't take terribly long in the oven, given the smaller size, and they work quite well when cooking for just two people. I made a pair of them, so we do have one leftover for another meal. These birds seemed like a good vehicle for the experiment, as they are not especially bold on their own in terms of flavor.


I started out by reducing the Dr. Pepper a fair bit. The flavor darkened up some, but still clearly tasted like Dr. Pepper. I added a 6-ounce can of tomato paste to the reduced Dr. Pepper, and crushed in some rosemary, as well as a small bit of salt. A bit more reduction, and I was ready for the next step in the process. Well, mostly ready...


One challenge I've faced lately in my kitchen has been that many of my utensils simply cannot be found when I need them. Our daughter loves to pretend-cook, and it delights me to no end to watch her concoct her batches of "strawberry soup, blueberry soup, pancakes, eggs, and spaghetti and meatballs." In fact, I may have to try to make some kind of strawberry or blueberry soup at some point, just to see what her imaginary food would actually taste like. That said, I really missed having my silicone brush tonight. It is surely sitting in a bowl somewhere with a small heap of her toys, and it is Friday after all; there's no telling where it could have gone during this past week. I had to resort to slowly pouring the glaze over the birds.


I used about half of the glaze in this simple form and popped the hens into the oven. I also baked some potatoes while I was at it; a quick starch, and a nice plain side so the poultry could remain center-stage. Shortly before serving dinner, I returned to the remaining glaze, and, well, doctored it up. The tomato paste had managed to dilute much of the sweetness in the Dr. Pepper, so I decided to bring some of the soda flavor back to the forefront. I added some honey, a small bit of salt and pepper, a generous dash of hot sauce (Louisiana-style, for what it's worth), and some apple cider vinegar. Essentially, it became a Dr. Pepper barbecue/dipping sauce, and we did some generous dipping, I can assure you.


Again, in the interest of letting the hen truly stand as a main course, I kept the veggie simple, and opted for some green beans. In all, cook and prep time brought this meal to the table in just over an hour and a half. It made for a satisfying end of the work week and kickoff to the weekend (no pun intended; I just remembered the Super Bowl is coming up on Sunday - GO GIANTS).


The verdict


I most definitely plan to make something like this again, and while I enjoyed the Cornish hen angle, I think the Dr. Pepper flavor is better suited to a nice pork loin. Next time, I'm going that route. The Dr. Pepper flavor was clearly present, but subtle. It probably would have been lost without the addition of the salt and honey. Who knows what they put into that tasty soda; all I know is that it makes a nice base for a different take on a barbecue sauce. I wanted to just start drinking the sauce right out of the serving dish.


I also don't know that I would pair up any particular wine with this dish. Sure, there are plenty that would work, but I'm inclined to consider serving this with either a fine bourbon (on the rocks, please), or some kind of Dr. Pepper-based cocktail. If anyone has some good suggestions for mixed drinks involving Dr. Pepper, please share them.


I was pleased with my choices for rather plain veg and starch. I think I might try some snow pea pods sauteed in olive oil with garlic when I make this with pork. Maybe. But the simple baked potato was definitely a keeper. Perhaps a smattering of goat cheese with diced dried cherries or cranberries over the potato when I make the pork will be in order. We'll see.


We are looking forward to the repeat of this meal tomorrow, and I'm declaring this one a success, even though I do plan to take the idea a different direction in the future. I'm also already thinking about some other non-traditional ingredients as possible launch points. If you care to make a suggestion, I'll gladly accept the challenge, assuming it is reasonable. Part of the joy of cooking is seeing if what you imagine a dish will taste like in any way resembles the end result. This one did.

Twisted Peppers

Last night, at the request of my wife, I made stuffed peppers. I've stuffed a lot of peppers in my life, most of them rather conventionally. More recently, I've been filling them with more of a Greek-inspired blend of lamb and beef, topping them with a similarly-influenced white sauce.  I needed to find a new twist on this simple dish, and so I decided to take a whirl at filling the peppers with more of a Cajun inspired stuffing. I used the basic idea of dirty rice to pave the way.


I don't keep chicken livers around, and so my take on this dish is less than authentic, but the spirit was there. The rice was mixed with ground beef, ground mustard, cumin, 5 different kinds of pepper, a bit of breadcrumbs, and sauteed onion. I figured the bell pepper on the outside would add enough of its own flavor, so I did not add that into the mix. The peppers I softened up a bit in advance with a short bake prior to filling.


Once I tasted the rice, rich with all those peppery flavors, I knew I'd need something as a contrast. I opted to top the filled peppers with a simple mixture of tomato paste, apple cider vinegar, salt, and a dash of prepared mustard. The slightly sweet/sour combination was a good counterbalance, and I'm really glad I decided to add it.


This is simple food. Other than the rice, the prep and cook time went remarkably fast, and I was able to cobble this together in rather little time. The best thing about stuffing peppers, to my mind, is how well they hold up as leftovers. About half went into the freezer, a couple were eaten, and couple are in the fridge to make tonight a nice, simple night of reheating. 


The verdict


Make no mistake - this was a spicy little dish! Just the right amount of "burn" on the lips and front of the tongue to be interesting, but not enough to overwhelm. But that tomato paste topping was spot on! I would most likely tone this down a wee bit for company (assuming they were not into spicy foods), but for us, it was just tasty and satisfying. We had a splash of leftover wine that was still good - Bonarda, if I recall correctly - and I had a bit of that as an afterthought. Not the best thing for the dish, but it was fine.