Crockpot Cornish Hens Recipe
Learn how to make tender, flavorful Cornish hens in your crockpot with this easy recipe.
Crockpot Cornish Hens are a dinner obsession in my home. My son (an eating machine) loves them because he gets a whole one for himself.
I love them because they’re so easy to make. You just need a handful of ingredients and 20 minutes to marinate them.
Cornish Hens Are Chickens
Cornish Hens are a specific breed of chicken specially bred in England. Cross-breeding helped them thrive in the mild yet rainy environment. What we buy in US-based grocery stores are labeled “Cornish Game Hens.”
But they aren’t necessarily hens. In fact, Cornish Game Hens are quite often male and are never true game birds.
Cornish Hens Might Not Even Be Cornish
The labeling quirks don’t end there. Due to USDA guidelines, any chicken of any breed or gender can be a “Cornish Game Hen.” It just has to weigh between 1 and 2 pounds and be younger than five weeks old.
Stock up when Cornish hens are on sale. I keep a grocery price tracker, so I know in my area their lowest prices are right after Valentine’s Day.
How to Cook Cornish Hens in a Crockpot
Start with Thawed Birds
It’s not safe to cook frozen poultry in a slow-cooker. This method of cooking takes longer to reach a safe internal temperature of 165°. Meanwhile, bacteria are breeding that can make the food unsafe to eat.
Also, making Crockpot Cornish Hens by adding frozen birds to the slow-cooker will result in dry, tough meat.
So, if you forget to defrost them in the refrigerator, don’t give up hope. You can quickly defrost poultry — or any meat — in a cold water bath. Here’s a video explaining how.
Give them a Quick Marinade
Start marinating them right after they come out of the freezer. Or dump the marinade into a bag, add the birds, and let it sit for 20 to 30 minutes.
The marinade the recipe below is not acidic, so there is no need to worry it will break down the meat or make it mushy. The marinade’s purpose is to add rich flavor.
Prop The Cornish Hens Upright
For even cooking, prop the birds up off the bottom of the crockpot. Propping them also keeps the undersides from getting mushy.
To prop them up, line the bottom of your slow-cooker with four onion halves, two per Cornish Hen. (A reader says that potato halves work great, too.) If you’re not a fan of onions or potatoes, crumpled balls of aluminum foil work well, also.
Temperature and Cooking Times
Once the birds are in the crockpot, pour any marinade left in the bag over them. Cook them on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours. That’s all there is to it.
Thanks to the marinade, your Cornish Hens are perfectly seasoned, tender, and still juicy. Weeknight dinners don’t get much easier than this!
Adjusting for Single Crockpot Cornish Hens
Many readers have asked if they need to adjust cooking times to make only one Crockpot Cornish Hen. Halving a slow-cooker recipe can be tricky. These devices work best when two-thirds to three-quarters full.
If you don’t have a smaller crockpot, you can get the same effect by using an oven-safe baking dish. Put the dish in your slow cooker, then add the halved recipe. Voila, you’ve created a smaller crock within your crockpot. Now you don’t need to adjust the time to get the same results.
Or, just make the full recipe and freeze half for later. It’s always nice to have a freezer stocked with healthy, heat-and-eat homemade meals.
Reheating Leftovers
With a teenage boy in the house, I rarely have leftover Crockpot Cornish Hens. They’re simple to reheat, though.
Put them in an oven-safe dish and cover with foil. Bake at 350° for 15-20 minutes until warm all the way through. For crispy skin, bump the heat to 450° for 2-3 minutes.
Crockpot Cornish Hens
Equipment
- Crockpot or Slow Cooker
Ingredients
Ingredients
- 2 Cornish hens
- ½ cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp oyster sauce
- ½ tsp garlic powder
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- 2 onions optional
- 2 tbsp butter optional
Instructions
- Shake marinade ingredients together in a gallon-size resealable bag. Add defrosted hens and marinate in refrigerator 20-30 minutes. (Or add frozen hens and let them marinate as they defrost overnight in the refrigerator’s meat drawer.)
- Slice the onions in half and place them flat-side down in the crockpot. (Alternatively: wad 4 pieces of aluminum foil into lemon-sized balls. Place these in the bottom of your crockpot.)
- Put each hen on top of 2 of the onion halves (or foil balls), so it's raised at least 1 inch from the bottom of the crockpot. Pour remaining marinade over the hens. (Optional: melt and drizzle the butter over the hens.)
- Cook on LOW for 8 hours or HIGH for 4 hours. Remove the crockpot lid and let the hens rest 5 minutes before transferring to serving plates.
- To crisp the skin, transfer the cooked Cornish Hens to a shallow oven-safe baking dish and broil for 2-3 minutes. Watch carefully to prevent over-browning.
WOW! Your cornish game hens are cooked so beautifully.
Thank you for sharing with us at Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Olivia, co-hostess
Reinvented Collection
Thank you, Olivia! They’re definitely a family favorite. 🙂
Yes, but if your crockpot cooks fast you should check them after 6 hours.
You’re very welcome. Thank you for visiting!
Growing up, we had Cornish hens all the time. As an adult, it hasn’t been something that I have made. This post made my mouth water. I know what I am making this weekend! Thank you so much.
When I was a kid, I always begged my mom to make Cornish hens but never actually got to have one until I was in my late 20s! They’re now a family favorite. 🙂
We just love Cornish Hens, these look so good! Thanks so much for sharing your post with Full Plate Thursday and have a great day!
Come Back Soon,
Miz Helen
Sounds delicious. I love Cornish hens served with Brussels sprouts. Thanks for the recipe!
You had me at Brussels sprouts. I love those!
They’re so convenient in the crockpot, and they never come out dry!
Aren’t slow cookers a busy mom’s best friend? 🙂
Or man
Yep, busy men love crock pots, too!
Husband allergic to soy. Any ideas for substitute in Cornish hen crock pot recipe
You could easily swap chicken broth, orange juice, or white wine. It will change the flavor profile but I think you’d still like the results. 🙂
5? FIVE??? Yep, I’d cherish my crockpot, too, if I had that big of a gang to feed. Have you tried the Instant Pot yet? It’s a slow cooker but SO MUCH MORE. I make flavored steel cut oats or hard “boiled” eggs (that the shells practically fall off from) for breakfast, then vegetable soup or steamed chicken (from frozen, in 20 minutes!) with broccoli for lunch, and anything from super tender spare ribs (45 minutes) to juicy pork chops (8 minutes) to whole “roasted” chicken (30 minutes) for dinner. I ❤️ my Instant Pot, and I’m just feeding two of us now. With a family your size, you’d love it!
Oh, and I hope you enjoyed the Crockpot Cornish Hens recipe. 🙂
How long would you cook this recipe in the Instant Pot? 30 minutes as mentioned above? What if you cooked 2 or 3 Cornish hens? Thanks!
J
When using a pressure cooker, there’s no need to increase the time you set just because you’ve doubled or tripled a recipe (or halved it, even). That’s all explained in the manual. 🙂
This recipe saved my day. Recently moved to a new apartment and did’nt know my oven isn’t working till I went to preheat it. Then had the good fortune to find your recipe for using my crock pot. Especially live the onion to rest the game hen on, as I avoid having aluminum as a contaminant in my food. Thanks so much.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Martha!
Teriyaki sauce works, too, or a bit of broth.
Awsome recipe, they turned out delicious. Paired the hens with olive oil roasted potatoes, and steamed broccoli. Thank you for sharing!
So glad you enjoyed them, Mitch. I love what a simple yet impressive recipe this is. Your olive oil roasted potatoes sound delicious, too!
I havent tried this recipe yet but I saw it and wanted to try it….I usually stray away from soy sauce recipes……I’m nervous to cook with it, but I love the flavor of it! I’m excited! I am using the onion/bell pepper bed due to lack of foil! If it lets me I will update my comment post cooking! I am new to housewife life and I stumbled upon your page…..I look forward to following your page, thank you!
Making monday but I am goign to do 4 hens do I double everything? What about cooking time on high ? 4 to 6 hrs ?
I assume you’ve found the answer already. Sorry — I was on Spring vacation!
I tried this for Thanksgiving dinner, Absolutely amazing, I turned the leftover marinade into a gravy using corn starch. Thanks for recipe.
I’m so glad you enjoyed them, Dan. Thank you for taking the time to leave a positive comment!
I’ve revised the recipe since the photo was taken. In the original, I recommended rubbing the hens with butter. I skipped that step a few times and they turned out just as well. I’ll edit the recipe to indicate it’s optional.
Hmm would potato’s do in place of the onion to hold the hens out of the juice?
I can’t see why not! Great idea. 🙂
You can always try it, though I haven’t done so. My concern is that they’d dry out, so if that happens please don’t blame the recipe. 🙂
Great recipe for a beginner like me. I’ve made it twice now and we love it. I would only give this 4 stars because of the extremely high Sodium content. I replaced the Soy Sauce with Bragg’s Liquid Aminos to lower the Sodium by almost half; without a loss of flavor.
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. Keep in mind that the sodium levels reflected in the nutritional info represent ALL the marinade ingredients. Since you’re not drinking them (or, at least I hope you’re not), they don’t indicate the amount of sodium you’re actually consuming. That said, Bragg’s works, too.
Wow! This recipe really exceeded my expectations. I didn’t have the ground ginger or the oyster sauce, but substituted it for a little chicken broth. The hens still turned out juicy, tender, and delish! I roasted some red potatoes and Brussels sprouts for sides and the meal could not have turned out more perfect! Thank you for sharing this “must try” recipe!
I’m so glad you liked it, Cassandra. Your choice of side dishes sounds delicious!
I’m making this now! I didn’t have oyster sauce so I used Hoisen instead. Hope it turns out good!
That substitute should work well. I hope you enjoy it!