It was kind of fun to make a game hen again. I’ve probably made them once in the last couple of years, but probably not for quite a few years prior to that. When I saw them already thawed at Whole Foods though, it made this a lot more do-able. No defrosting! Then it becomes a quick meal, that looks pretty fancy. In fact, I picked up my ingredients on my way home, and still had dinner on the table by 7:00!
I decided that I needed to mix Dorie’s flavors up a bit, and probably could have gone a bit farther – but decided on an andouille sausage, and instead of bread, some sweet potato biscuits (if only I had a cornbread muffin!). I also added a fair amount of thyme, some chopped sweet pepper and was generous with the black pepper and garlic.
This is a fairly simple, typical preparation – vegetables, sausage and seasonings get browned together. Then an egg (for the full recipe) and “bread” gets added as well, and seasoned again.
And about 40 minutes later in a 425 degree oven – it goes from this… to this.
I served halves with some mashed sweet potatoes to round out the Southern vibe of the meal.
This was a fun, and surprisingly quick recipe. Quick, easy, delicious, even a bit elegant. There was good flavor from the organic bird, so that worked out well. And this is a nice way to get both light and dark meat in reasonable serving sizes as well. Altogether a hit.
Note to Doristas: I did not flip the bird around – I just worked to get it out of the oven when it was perfectly done, so that it was juicy throughout.
dulceshome 
This was a fairly simple recipe. How nice that you were able to find thawed birds available at the store! Finding the right bird seems to have been a struggle this week for several of us.
It all looks delish Candy, and I love the flavours you chose.
Your bird does look elegant, Candy. Although I am loving the central Cali coast, I will be glad to get back to Colorado and my Whole Foods store. When I cannot find it any other place, they always seem to have everything Dorie requires. I do salute you for getting that meal on the table in a speedy fashion. After work, tired and hungry, good for you. I also like your enhanced sausage stuffing but do agree that a cornbread muffin would have been great with it.
Your changes sound delicious and the mashed sweet potato looks yummy too! I didn’t flip the bird around either…
Ours were rock hard at Whole Foods! In fact, mine were still pretty hard when I brought them out of the fridge
But still ended up with a scrumptious dinner! So glad you enjoyed, too!
Lovely color in that skin! You did good!
Beautiful! I served sweet potato with mine too.
My hens were fresh too! It actually surprised me…because I’ve only ever seen them frozen! That made it a nice quick meal and delicious too! Yours looks great! Happy weekend!
Looks delicious. I added sage instead of parsley to my stuffing and so my kitchen smelled like thanksgiving. With those mashed potatoes it would have tasted like it too:-)
I’d never made sausage stuffing before, so I stuck to the recipe. I really liked it, it was a revelation. Your post inspires me to play around with future versions. I like your Southern twist on the stuffing and the sides. Yum!
Beautiful results – love that color you got on your hen ! And that plate looks positively delicious. Love the idea of pairing it with the sweet potatoes, in fact love the whole southern vibe thing you gave to this week’s recipe. Awesome 🙂
Oh this hen looks fantastic! I like your version of the stuffing! Very colourful and I am sure full of flavour! Have a great week!
Great looking bird!
Beautiful, the mashed sweet potatoes look delicious. I also love your stuffing modifications – sweet potato biscuits sound excellent.