Right back at you with Cornish Hens (or, as my uncle would remind us all, Baby Chickens):

So, a couple of weeks ago at the supermarket cornish hens were on sale. Whenever I can get a pair for less than $6 I usually jump at the chance because they are pretty versatile and usually make for dinners that look as good as they taste. Anyway, I found an interesting recipe for Cornish Hens with a Maple-Mustard Glaze on epicurious.com and gave it a shot. This is an incredibly easy preparation and would be equally good on oven roasted chicken thighs/breasts/legs, turkey, etc.

For the glaze, mix 2 tablespoons of maple syrup, 1.5 tablespoons of butter, 1 tablespoon of dijon mustard, and 1 teaspoon of dried thyme in a small saucepan, simmer, and whisk until the butter has melted and the glaze has come together. Preheat your oven to 350 (f). Dry off the bird(s) and season inside and out with salt and pepper. I chopped up some mushrooms, onions, and mixed these with a little more dried thyme and stuffed the birds for a little added flavor, but that is optional. Set your timer for 50 minutes, and put the birds in the oven on the middle rack. Baste them with the maple-mustard glaze every ten minutes. At 50 minutes, insert a thermometer into the deepest part of the thigh muscle and continue to roast until the internal temperature hits 175 (f). At this point, remove the birds from the oven and let them rest. The carry over heat should push the temperature of the meat to about 180.

I split the birds into quarters and served them with mashed potatoes and corn bread (half a recipe from the side of the Quaker corn meal container, plus a teaspoon and a half of dried thyme) with mushroom gravy (from a simple roux and some homemade mushroom stock) and a side salad. The skin of the birds was incredibly flavorful, with a nice balance of sweetness from the maple syrup and spiciness from the mustard. The thyme in the background really tied the dish together, however. My wine for the evening was a 2004 Altos las Hormigas Malbec from Mendoza, Argentina. I thought it did nicely in terms of playing off the thyme flavor that I had used as a central component of the birds and the mushroom gravy.