HELP... Deep Fried Cornish Game Hens

[ice fishin' nut]

The wife wants me to deep fry some cornish game hens tommorow......

The question is, do I total up all the weight, put all the birds in and then cook at 3.5 minutes per pound. Or do I just cook for the average weight of 1 bird?????

Please help.........

[Salmonsmoker]

IFN.

I have never tried to deep-fry game hens. They do make excellent meat for experiments in brines and smoking.

I think you need to cook for the weight of one bird because the oil will circulate around each bird individually. For sure, with several birds, it will take longer for the oil to regain it's cooking temperature but that will be easily determined by using a cooking thermometer. The main consideration: how thick is any one piece of meat - how long will it take the heat to penetrate completely through the meat. With hot oil both inside and outside the bird(s), I would go for the time needed to cook the largest bird, and then take them out and do a test.

Let me know how it turns out.

SS

[ice fishin' nut]

SS, I tried them....

I injected them with herbs and butter, and fried them about 4.5 minutes,,,,, they turned out OK, but I definitly like turkey better.....


I dont think that they have enough fat and juices in them to make a good ingredient for deep frying.....

I was thinking about trying a pheasant or grouse, but think that I will end up with the same results!

[jpollman]

Nut,
I may be wrong. But if it were me I'd take the TOTAL weight of ALL of the birds. I'd assume you're just going to "thread" them on the rack just like a turkey. In my mind it's the total weight of the meat to cook, NOT the number of individual birds.
I have often thought of trying this too. Let me know how it comes out. I might try it soon and I'll report the results.

[ice fishin' nut]

JP, I did try them, and did 6 of them at once,,,,, total cooking time was 4.5 minutes.....

[Salmonsmoker]

IFN,

Try cutting the cooking time a little. Sounds like they were overcoked.

Salmonsmoker.