Scale back your feast: A simple recipe you can make in place of a Thanksgiving turkey

MILWAUKEE -- If you're looking to scale back your Thanksgiving feast, or just want to try something new, we have a recipe that works perfectly. In this week's Dining with Duria, Angelica prepares a roasted cornish hen.

Roasted Cornish Hen

Ingredients:
- 1 Cornish hen, thawed and insides removed, rinsed and patted dry with paper towel
- ½ lemon, cut in half
- Salt & pepper
- Paprika
- 1 sprig of thyme, plus more chopped
- 1 sprigs of Rosemary, plus loose rosemary leaves
- 5 garlic cloves
- Butter and/or olive oil

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Squeeze ½ of the lemon over Cornish hen. Then lightly rub butter or olive oil (or a mix) all over the outside of the Cornish hen. Or even better, take a slice of butter and tuck it in between underneath the skin of the bird, and olive oil over the skin.
3. Sprinkle generous amounts of salt & pepper all over the skin. Then sprinkle paprika over hen, followed by a little bit of rosemary and thyme.
4. Place the other half of the lemon and 1 sprig of rosemary and thyme in the cavity of the Cornish hen with the cloves of garlic. If you have string, tie the legs together.
5. Put Cornish hen on a wire rack in a roasting pan breast side up. Roast in oven for 25 minutes.
6. After 25 minutes, reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Baste the meat with the juices from the pan, about every 10 minutes. Continue roasting for another 25 minutes, until the hen is golden brown and the juices run clear.
7. Let the Cornish hen rest for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

NOTE: You can roast multiple Cornish hens at the same time side-by-side. Just multiply the ingredients list by the number of birds.