Cornish Game Hens with White Rice and Bacon

This recipe has been a mainstay for family dinners for as long as I can remember.  The best part about this is the rice.  It's buttery on the bottom of the baking dish, but the rice on the top gets crunchy and it's pretty fabulous. My mother hates to cook, but she makes good food, and this recipe is one she's perfected.  A quick phone call the other day to ask for proportions and tips, and we were ready for our feast. 

Ingredients: cornish game hens, white rice, butter, onions, salt/pepper, bacon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  

This is a pretty simple dish, and you can obviously spice it up if you want other flavors, but we were going for simplicity.  So first, prepare the rice according to package directions.  I used long grain white rice, but you can use any rice you prefer.  I made 1 1/2 cups of rice which yielded 3 cups since my baking dish couldn't hold too much more than that.  For the last 5 minutes of cooking i added diced onions and a tablespoon of butter to the rice. 

When the rice is ready, spread about 1/3 of it on a baking dish.  Stuff the birds with some rice and place them on top of the rice in the baking dish. Fill the rest of the rice in the open areas of the baking dish. 

Now, butter these guys up.  Rub the birds with butter and place little cubes on/in the rice.  I used about 2 tbsp total for this part, but in retrospect I could have used more.  The final, though maybe unnecessary touch, is to drape a slice of bacon across the breast of each hen.  As we know, everything tastes better with bacon, and this adds a nice extra flavor.  But you certainly can roast these hens without it. 

Finally, season with salt and pepper, put in the oven, and bake for about an hour to an hour and a half.  I went for the longest time, just to make sure everything was cooked through, and the butter helped keep things moist.  To serve we typically cut the hens in half with kitchen shears and pile on the rice.