I came up with this recipe for a cooking class I was teaching for Williams Sonoma.

While we call for small Cornish Game hens, this recipe also works well with chicken or even turkey. One word of advice, the bigger your bird, the longer it will need to cook, so to prevent over-browning, if you're cooking a larger bird, cover loosely with foil for the first part of your cooking time.

Also note that you can prepare the stuffing and the glaze ahead of time and store them in the refrigerator until you're ready to use them, enabling you to make an impressive meal, even after a hard day's work (or fun). Come home, pop the stuffing in the birds, brush with glaze and bake!

Serves 6 Hungry Folks (or 12 dainty ones)

Preheat oven to 350°F. If necessary, remove neck and giblets from game hens. Wash hens inside and out and pat dry.

Prepare stuffing and cool slightly (or completely if you make the stuffing ahead of time). See links below for stuffing recipe.

Oil a large baking dish. Loosely stuff each bird (about 3/4 stuffing cup per hen). Truss the birds, folding the wings back and tying the legs together with kitchen twine. Place hens in prepared baking dish. Season with salt and pepper and place in preheated oven.

Prepare glaze:
In the meantime prepare glaze by combing apricot preserves, Grand Marnier, melted butter and habenero sauce in a small sauce pan. Heat, stirring until well blended and the preserves have melted.

Bake birds for about 45 minutes (or until 180°F on a meat thermometer), About 20 minutes before birds are done, use a pastry brush to baste the hens generously with the glaze, and continue basting with the glaze frequently from this point on. Remove to a platter and let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Stuffing & glaze Leftover Ideas!

Have leftover stuffing and and/or glaze? Great! Here are two tasty ideas of how to use it up:

1. Make a Meatloaf! Mix 4 parts Peach, Sausage and Wild Rice Stuffing with 5 parts ground beef and one egg. I like to add a bit more hot sauce too, but this is up to personal taste. Mix well and freeform into a loaf shape on a greased baking sheet. Bake in a 350-degree F oven for about 1 hour, brushing with glaze recipe above during the last 15 minutes of cooking.

2. Breakfast Patties! For a unique and delicious quick breakfast dish, mix about 1 cup stuffing with 1 egg. Saute in a skillet like you would a pancake, turning once to brown both sides. Brush top of "wild Rice pancake" with apricot preserves (or leftover glaze) and sprinkle with a tiny bit of nutmeg. Food Safety Warning: If you plan on saving some glaze for later use, separate it into a second bowl before brushing on the raw hens or meatloaf in order to avoid cross-contamination from the meat.