Author Notes
These hens are filled with a sausage stuffing and then sewn together with a needle and thread to keep the stuffing inside. You do this to keep the stuffing from falling out when you flip them, as you want to start cooking them breast side down, so all the juices run into the breast during the cooking process, then once you flip and turn up the heat, you baste the breast often to keep it juicy and brown it quickly. Once cooked you can either cut the breast in half and serve each person a half portion (very filling in itself) or just place a plump juicy bird on each plate and let everyone eat away! —coffeefoodwrite
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Ingredients
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1 spicy Andouille sausage – chopped small
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3-4 large brown mushrooms – chopped small
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7-8 large brown mushrooms – trimmed and cut in half
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extra virgin olive oil
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¼ teaspoon salt
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¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
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2 large cloves garlic – crushed
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1 (full) cup seasoned bread cubes
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½ teaspoon fresh thyme – chopped
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¼ cup white wine
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4 medium leaves fresh sage
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½ cup red wine
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¼ cup chicken stock
Directions
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
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Sauté sausage in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a deep sided sauté pan – until browned and cooked through (I used Applewood Farms pre-cooked Andouille sausage, but regular uncooked Andouille sausage would work well here too). Add mushrooms and ¼ teaspoon salt and pepper and sauté until softened (about 3-4 minutes). Add crushed garlic and sauté about 1 minute more. Turn heat down to low, add bread cubes and thyme and stir to moisten, turn up to medium low, add white wine and stir to moisten again. About a minute, then remove from heat and set aside.
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Wash and thoroughly dry hens. Place two sage leaves inside cavity of each hen. Stuff each hen w/ sausage/bread crumb mixture and sew opening closed with a needle and thread.
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Rub birds all over with olive oil; dust with salt and pepper and place birds, breast side down in roasting dish.
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Surround w/ cut mushrooms; drizzle mushrooms with a little olive and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Add red wine and stock to dish and bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. After 40 minutes, flip birds over, baste generously, (including mushrooms) and turn heat up to 425 degrees. Cook approximately 20 minutes more until breast is browned and bird is cooked through (basting a couple times more to keep breast juicy).
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When cooked cut through thread (used to close up cavity); serve to warmed plates and spoon juices over top.
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