This meal actually took more than 24 hours to make. Yes, to answer your question, these meals are about empowering you to cook great food at home. Then, why would I make such a complicated meal? Well, it’s not complicated it’s just time-consuming because I made the brine from scratch. With all of these meals, you can easily augment the recipe to your lifestyle. For instance, you could grill or bake these cornish hens in 45 minutes and they’d be a great dinner. The key here is the brine takes the cornish hens to a whole new level. The brine is super easy to make when you follow my instruction video (Click here). Perfection takes time but it’s worth it every time. Once you’ve put together the brine and let it cool, then really the rest of the recipe is simple. Brine the Cornish Hens, let them sit overnight uncovered to let them dry out in the fridge, then grill them for 45 minutes (Click here, it’s that easy). Or bake them. Don’t make this harder than it needs to be. The salad is one of our favorites and it does not need any dressing. The juices from the watermelon are enough. This salad is also super easy to make for a BBQ or a dinner party. Stop telling yourself you can’t make this meal and just try and make it!
What was the macro breakdown?
Cornish Hens are like little chickens so they are a lean protein, which means you can eat a whole one without blowing up your calories. Then you couple that with a Watermelon Arugula Spinach salad you have not only a nutritious meal but you can eat more without a guilty conscience. When we make Cornish Hens I usually eat a whole one where my wife likes to eat just half. This meal breaks down like this, 447 k/cal which is a pretty substantial dinner. 
The macros are 14 grams of Carbohydrates, 19 grams of Fat and 53 grams of protein. If you were to eat only half the cornish hen then the fat goes down slightly and the protein changes to 29 grams. When looking at the break down this meal is not as balanced as the other ones, but that’s ok because of what I ate the rest of the day. That’s what matters most. What does the whole day look like? Since this was a day I worked out most of my carbohydrates came around my workout, therefore I did not need more carbs for dinner. If you need more carbohydrates than this I’d add more watermelon on the side.
What did we like about the meal?
The Cornish Hens were so juicy and tender. The key is cooking them off direct heat on which is essentially baking them. The other part was how good the meat tasted. You could taste the sage and lemon. It takes a really good piece of chicken for me not to add sauce to it. This was the epitome of well seasoned. What we really loved about the meal was the salad. Yes, it’s that good. Every time we bring this salad to parties people raves about it. Just try it.
What would we change next time?
A cup of watermelon is the perfect amount for one salad but after looking at the macros you could add another cup for more carbohydrates. That’s only if you needed more for that day. In the video, I said to brine for 4-6 hours but in reality, the hens were in for 12 hours. Why were they in that long you might ask? We have two kids and I fell asleep that evening before I could take them out. This may or may not change next time because the hens still turned out great. I took them out in that morning and they still dried out in the fridge for 8 hours before they hit the grill. So, even when trying to be perfect, life happens and gets in the way. That’s the reality of life with young children, but you can still make the best of it. Don’t talk yourself out of it before you try it.
Watch the YouTube Instruction Video Here!
Watch the YouTube Instruction Video Here!
Three Pillars for Your Best life 