Guinea hen: the more flavorful alternative to chicken

By DAVID TANIS
IT IS JUST AS EASY to roast as a chicken, but tastes immeasurably better. It is quite popular in Canada and Britain, and in France and Italy every butcher has it (cheaper than chicken, too).

I’m speaking of the guinea hen, the deeply flavored fowl that most Americans haven’t even tasted. Accessibility partly explains that; in the United States, you can’t just drop into a supermarket and pick up a guinea hen for dinner. With the exception of a few new-wave butcher shops that feature heritage breeds, like the Local Butcher Shop, in Berkeley, Calif., and Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in Chelsea Market in Manhattan, the choice is usually pork, lamb, beef, chicken. Those of us who would like to roast the occasional duck or rabbit must seek out sources like these or rely on Internet purveyors like D’Artagnan, the company that specializes in odd birds, among other alternative meats. That’s changing (some D’Artagnan products are now available in certain supermarkets), but there are no signs that these meats are moving to the center of the American plate.

It wasn’t always so. Traditionally, American homesteads had a few guinea fowl running around. And tastes used to include more game, especially ducks and geese. Any decent poulterer would have had guinea hens, quail and capons in addition to stewing chickens.

Not that guinea hen tastes gamy. Some say it resembles chicken with turkey overtones. To me it’s more like pheasant, but juicier, and since the guinea is dark meat, the flesh really delivers flavor. Broth made from the carcass is intensely rich. Given the choice, I would always choose guinea over chicken — a better bird, hands down.

You don’t have to do anything special to show off these qualities. Buy a three-to-four-pound bird, preferably with a nice amount of bright yellow fat. A handful of garlic, a lemon, rosemary and salt are all you need. An hour in a hot oven will give you a burnished, fragrant roasted hen.

It is a lovely thing to have year-round, but in cold weather it’s especially nice, served with grilled radicchio or roasted root vegetables.