Max-Style Fried Cornish Hen

One of the most popular restaurants in the Philippines is called Max's Restaurant--famous for their scrumptious and finger-licking good fried chicken! As far as I can remember, they have a large chain in the Philippines even back then and finally, their chain has been expanding here in the US as well. It started in Glendale, CA in the 90's and has recently opened their newest shop in Jersey City, NJ last year.

Growing up in the Philippines, Max's is a household name and my family and I used to go there for lunches or dinners or simply for takeouts. I remember this is my Dad's favorite places to get food after work and he would buy a whole fried chicken to take home. One night, my Dad came home with Max's fried chicken and in the bag were packets of ketchup included with the meal. As a kid, I never really liked ketchup because of its color and texture. I've always thought they looked like blood! It scared the bejesus out of me! So that night, I took all of the packets of ketchup and threw them in the garbage can as soon as my Dad walked away! Ha ha! When we were ready to eat dinner, my Dad was looking for all of the packets of ketchup. So, I pretended I didn't know where they went, but I felt guilty that told him I threw them out! Needless to say, he had to dig through the garbage for those ketchup packets! And for the record, I started using ketchup as a condiment when I was already in 5th grade! Yes, it took me awhile to get used to it and now, I love all kinds of ketchup from Heinz's classic to Philippines sweet banana ketchup!

So, here I am at home reminiscing the nostalgic taste of Max's chicken and at the same time thinking of my Dad and his mother, my Lola who used to take me to Max's for lunch after clothes and shoe shopping in Manila. Those were the good ol' days. So today I scoured the Web for Max's style fried chicken and found the best one at "Panlasang Pinoy" (Taste of Pinoy)! But since I didn't have fresh parsley or cilantro at hand, I used dried lemon grass instead. The result was still incredible and love the citrusy notes on the hens. It was quite lovely that my husband and I really enjoyed this dinner tonight. The meat was so tender and juicy, and just bursting with flavor! I served this dish with freshly warm popovers, Martha Stewart's style and it was just the perfect meal.

Ingredients:
2 Cornish Hens
6 Bay Leaves
Cilantro or Parsley (but I ran out of these dried herbs that I substituted with dried Lemon Grass)
Garlic Salt
Pepper
Canola Oil for deep frying

Banana Ketchup

Directions:
In a steamer, boil water with the dried herbs. Season Cornish hens with garlic salt and pepper. Once water is boiling, place Cornish hens on the steamer basket. Let it steam for 45 minutes. Remove hens from the steamer and place in on a baking rack. Let it rest for at least an hour before deep frying to remove excess liquid from the hens. Deep fry it for 10-12 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the deep fryer and allow oil to drip.

For dinner, I served this with fresh popovers and sweet and spicy banana ketchup. YUM!