This Dutch Oven Cornish hen recipe with potatoes and pumpkin is super easy to make! It’s a delicious recipe if you want to go the non-traditional route this holiday season.
Dutch Oven Cornish Hens with Potatoes and Pumpkin
Do you ever get tired of turkey at the holidays? I’m not really huge into ham, so that means I normally have turkey at Thanksgiving, Christmas and sometimes New Years too if I found a really good deal on turkey.
Having turkey 3 times within 2 months can get old quick, so that’s why I decided to test run these Cornish Hens in the dutch oven with pumpkin, purple potatoes and chorizo. I wanted to see if I could spice things up the next holiday season.
My good friend Erica had a bunch of leftover pumpkin which she was giving away to a good home and I quickly snagged up as much as she was willing to give me!
The rest of the pumpkin was cubed and I used it in this Cornish hens with pumpkin, purple potatoes and chorizo recipe. This was my first time cooking Cornish Hens and they turned out surprisingly well!
It was also my first time baking with cubed pumpkin, cooking with chorizo and eating purple potatoes. A whole lot of firsts were had in the making of this recipe.
I found my Cornish Hens in the Frozen Meat and Poultry section. I defrosted mine under running water for an hour and then placed it in the refrigerator over night.
I would normally skip the running water and just defrost it the whole time in the fridge but with daylight savings time the days are shorter and I would not have any good lighting when I got home to take pictures so I had to cook this at 6 in the morning.
Another first, I recently bought this beautiful dutch oven and this was my fist time cooking with it 🙂
Ingredients for this Dutch Oven Cornish Hens Recipe:
- 1 Twin Pack Tyson Cornish Hens (thawed)
- chorizo (cooked and removed from casing)
- purple potatoes cubed (~1 inch)
- cubed pumpkin (~1 inch)
- fresh rosemary, diced
- salt and pepper to taste
- olive oil
How to make Cornish Hens in a Dutch Oven
- First, preheat the oven to 350F
- Next, in a medium skillet, cook the chorizo on stove top over medium high heat. Drain off excess fat.
- Wash and cube potatoes and pumpkin.
- Dice fresh rosemary
- In the dutch oven combine cooked cubed pumpkin, potatoes, cooked chorizo, and rosemary
- Place thawed Cornish Hens on top and brush with olive oil
- Season with salt and pepper to taste
- Cook covered for 1 hour
- Remove lid and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Check internal temperature. Once at 165F remove from oven.
- Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Dutch Oven Cornish Hens with Potatoes and Pumpkin
Equipment
- Dutch Oven
Ingredients
- 16 oz package of chorizo cooked and removed from casing
- 28 oz package of purple potatoes cubed ~1 inch
- 4 cups cubed pumpkin ~1 inch
- 2 sprigs rosemary diced
- 2 Cornish Hens thawed
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 tbsp olive oil
Instructions
- First, preheat the oven to 350F
- Next, in a medium skillet, cook the chorizo on stove top over medium high heat. Drain off excess fat.
- Wash and cube potatoes and pumpkin.
- Dice fresh rosemary
- In the dutch oven combine cooked cubed pumpkin, potatoes, cooked chorizo, and rosemary
- Place thawed Cornish Hens on top and brush with olive oil
- Season with salt and pepper to taste
- Cook covered for 1 hour
- Remove lid and cook uncovered for 15 minutes. Check internal temperature. Once at 165F remove from oven.
- Let sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Nutrition
What a beautiful recipe, those purple potatoes look delicious! Tyson Cornish Hens are a great alternative to ham & turkey. #client
OMG I friggin’ love this! Probably because a serving is a WHOLE HEN! LOL!
I love the daintiness of Tyson® Cornish Hens and how they look on a plate fancy. Not only are they delicious and all natural with no artificial ingredients or preservatives, but they are also really easy to make and grill. Teriyaki is by far our favorite glaze, but a honey mustard sauce is also delicious to serve over the hen.
I had never tried Cornish hens this way until I found This recipe. The purple potatoes were perfect for this dish.