Comments on: Orange Ginger Brined Game Hen

By: Gavan

Gavan — Wed, 26 May 2010 00:08:13 +0000

I love those flavoured herbs. I was looking for lemon thyme at the weekend but it’s not available yet and my local farmers market.
I’ve never heard of pineapple mint so I’ll have to check that out.
Cheers Terry

By: Terry

Terry — Sat, 22 May 2010 18:45:11 +0000

Just a note..while doing my herb garden, I was looking for different herbs to plant…well, I came upon ginger mint and orange and lemon thyme…wow, new for me…I thought it my be great for this recipe…also I found pineapple mint last year and love it in my salads!!!

By: Gavan Murphy aka the H.I.

Gavan Murphy aka the H.I. — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 23:11:13 +0000

Hey Justin, Great questions, man. By drying the bird, especially the skin, it helps get it crispy with the olive oil on it. If the skin was wet it wouldn’t crisp up as nicely and the olive oil would just run off it. It’s not crucial to dry up everything in the cavity but out of habit I’ve always done it and also I find that sometimes in chickens or turkey there’s still some blood in the cavity from the insides so I like to clean that up before I cook the old dear.
Also I’ve found that brining adds additional flavour to the stock. Most of the brining flavour will be in the meat, which is the point so you’ll just have the great leftover flavour in the carcass.
Thanks for the input.

By: Justin

Justin — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 18:44:36 +0000

This recipe sounds good, but I had a few questions. First, why go to the trouble of drying the outside and cavity of the bird if you are going to pour broth on the tray surrounding the chicken so as to keep the oven humid and end up with a moist bird? Does drying the chicken really make any difference? Second, do you find that the carcass of a brined bird is too salty to make stock? Thanks.