Cornish Game Hens - 1st time Hen cook

[Ducaticraig]

Hi all, I have two little birds waiting at home for the Mak 2 Star to fire up. One hen is wearing some butter with simply marvelous pecan rub, the other is wearing some butter with obie-cue sweet rub. Inside each is a very small pinch of salt, pepper and a sprig of rosemary. Being this is my first Cornish game hen cook I hope I'm not over doing it with the amount of rub on each hen.

My plan is to do a indirect cook at 375 for 50-60 min and pull at 165. Also plan on using a mix of apple and oak pellets. I will post more pictures when I pull the hens off the new Mak.

Please share your feedback since I still have 4 hours until grill time.



Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ducaticraig]

Here are the pre cook picture.

Craig


Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[MAK DADDY]

mmmmm game hens! usually only takes me about 40 minutes so check them around the 1/2hr mark to see how fast they are cooking.

Couple older GH pics, enjoy your dinner

 

[RickB]

At 375 your going to generate very little smoke. Think i would try about 30min on smoke and then crank it up and pull at 165 IT

 

[Ducaticraig]

I will go for a lower temp to smoke for 30 or so min and then up the temp until I reach 165. Thanks for the tip.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[TentHunter]

Those little birdies look pretty good and tasty before you even started cooking them. I like the rosemary stuffed inside like you did. I bet they were fantastic!



One observation:

Also plan on using a mix of apple and oak pellets.

If they're BBQ'rs Delight, then they're already a mix of apple & oak (1/3 Apple + 2/3 oak).

 

[Ducaticraig]

Ok so I smoked the birds for 30 min and then up'd the temp to 375 for an additional 40 minutes. Here are the pictures before my hell started.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ducaticraig]

Pulled the hens off at what appeard to be 165. We cut open the breast and noticed some pink areas by the breast bone on both birds. My fiance asked if I could put the birds back on the Mak. I took them back to the grill which was 10 minutes into shut down mode and decided to turn the grill off and then start it up again. The birds were placed back on the grill with juices dripping. The grill was turned on and seemed to take 5 or so min to start heating again. I notice tons of smoke which made me nervous since I've never seen that much before. With the smoke came a nasty burning smell. I cracked the lid for a peak and did not see any fire so I let the grill keep going. A couple min later the burning smell got worse so I took another peak and this time saw fire coming up aroind the outside of the drip pan. I immediately unpluged the grill. Eventually the fire went out and I waw able to salvage the birds. They actually came out not that bad except for the new burnt smoke flavor. I was upset to see my new grill grease pan and flame zone covers all stain

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ducaticraig]

stained black. While the fire was just about out I attempted to follow the shut down procedure. This resulted in more smoke and burning scent but this time the smoke was coming through the hopper. At that point I just unplugged the grill and waited until the fire was out and the grill cooled down. I took everything apart to clean but am having a hard time getting all the black crap off of the grease pan, the flame zone covers and the quick change frame. While the fire was not that big I'm devastated with how the grill looks when I open it up. I'm the type of anal griller who cleans everything after each use. All I can think is when I put the hens back on the grill all the juice coming from the birds some how pool

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ducaticraig]

Pooled up and by the time the grill started up again and climbed up to 375 the fire started. I'm just not sure exactly what happened but I know the grill was new with no grease in it before this cook. Can anyone help me understand what I may have done wrong so I'm not terrified to fire up the grill again?

I almost feel like ordering a new quick change kit again so I don't have to look at the blackend burn marks on my new MAK. Boy do I feel like an idiot for ruining my new grill on what was really the first cook. Sorry for my horrible story.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[muebe]

Once you have shut down a pellet grill it will have smoldering pellets that turn into ash. If you restart without first clearing out the ash the airflow in the firepot will become restricted causing your mishap. Also the firepot will be loaded with pellets during the start-up process causing further problems. The shutdown process is designed to slowly cool the grill, get rid if excessive ash, and keep the pellets in the hopper from igniting. It is important that you let this process complete.

The black coating is soot from the incomplete combustion. There are products that are used to clean the glass on a fireplace that might be helpful to remove the soot.

I always like to leave my pellet grill on for 10 minutes after I cook to burn off grease and food particles but this is also helpful if you find that the food is undercooked. Then you can just put it back on the grill.

If you shut down the pellet grill you must wait for the shutdown process to complete before restarting. Also a good idea to clean the firepot out after every cook to avoid issues.

 

[Ducaticraig]

Got everything cleaned up and wiped down the best I could. Must have spent hours late night cleaning. This morning I put everything back together and fired up the grill. First to 225 for 10 min and then up to 350 followed by High. I will let it run for 30 - 60 min but for now everything seems back to normal except for the fugly looking flame zone grease pan and covers. Life goes on and back to grilling this weekend.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[TentHunter]

Pulled the hens off at what appeard to be 165. We cut open the breast and noticed some pink areas by the breast bone on both birds. My fiance asked if I could put the birds back on the Mak.

Ahhh, this is a classic issue. A lot of folks simply don't understand that pink around the bones is NOT an accurate indicator of whether a bird is done or not.

There are two things going on:

1) Younger, smaller birds have soft bones and the marrow seeps through while cooking.

2) When you truss a whole bird and cook it, not a lot of heat gets to the inside of the cavity where the breast bones are. With that method, cooking I would expect to see some pink around the breast bones.

Cooking a whole trussed bird until the pink around the breast bones is gone means you've more than likely just overcooked the outside of your bird and the meat will be a lot dryer. The same holds true for the legs bones. I commonly see pink around the legs bones.

As long as you trust your thermometer, and make sure the breast meat is above 165°, you will be fine. And your chicken will be a lot juicier!

Cliff

Life goes on and back to grilling this weekend.

That's the ticket!

 

[Ducaticraig]

I really appreciate your feedback. This has been an issue last time I grilled a game hen on a different grill. I thought the bird was not done but my fiance said it was. I will will trust my thermopen nxt time. The bird was pulled at 165. Thanks Cliff.

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[MAK DADDY]

Here is what happened.

When the MAK is in cool down mode the fire will burn completely out long before the grill drops below 140 degrees. So when you turn it back on in the middle of the cooldown the igniter will not come on (thinking that the fire is already lit). The auger will feed pellets trying to achieve your set temp overflowing the pot with pellets. In your case there was probably enough coals in the pot that it finally did light (which is why you saw so much smoke), after lighting it soared way past the set point due to the overload of pellets in the pot causing your fire.

The short answer is to let the grill cool down all the way before starting again (you can open the lid to speed up this process). After turning back on let the grill settle on the set temp before adding the food back on the grill.



Like Tent said, sounds like your chicken was done the first time, pink around the bone is normal as long as the breast hit 165 you are good to go.

 

[MAK DADDY]

BTW, the birds look awesome!
Don't worry about grease stains and dark pans you should see my MAK.
After all it's a smoker and a damn good one at that

 

[scooter]

I deal with undercooked chicken regularly at contests. The surest way to determine if a piece of poultry is cooked properly is to look at the juices. If they are clear, it's done. If you're unsure if the juices are clear dab a white paper towel or napkin against the area that appears to be pink. If the white paper towel/napkin comes up pink, it's underdone and should be returned to the cooker until the juices run clear.

 

[scooter]

I'm the type of anal griller who cleans everything after each use.

I like this guy already!

 

[Ducaticraig]

Being anal sometime has it's drawbacks. I thinks it's time to stop worrying about a little smoke stain and start cooking up a storm of great food. The birds did look good until my armature move with the MAK.

This weekend I'm cooking up some ribs. I promise not to torch the grill this time. Smoke flavor is soooo much better when your "GRILL" is not on fire. Take care, Craig

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk 2

 

[scooter]

If you take pride in a clean pit, don't let anyone talk or rib you out of cleaning it! They call me Mr Clean and I'm fine with that as I like to keep my pits looking new. It really doesn't take much effort to keep a 2 Star looking sharp.
Now get cooking and take lots of pics! The motto here in regards to images is, if there are no pics, it didn't happen!