Here's everything worth knowing about hen and how to pick it, what it is, how to store it, and what to use instead, plus 9 recipes to cook tonight.

What is hen?

In cooking, a hen is a mature female chicken, also sold as a stewing hen or boiling fowl. It is an older bird, often a retired laying hen, and that age is the whole point.

The meat is deeper in flavor and firmer than a young bird, far better suited to the pot than to the grill.

A hen is not the bird for a quick roast. Its well-exercised muscle and tougher connective tissue need long, gentle, moist cooking to turn tender. In exchange you get a richer broth and a more chicken-y chicken flavor than a young, fast-grown fryer can give.

You may also see "hen" used loosely for a whole chicken in older recipes, or for game hens, but here it means the mature stewing bird built for slow cooking.

How to Cook a Hen

Low and slow is the rule. Simmer a whole hen gently in water with aromatics for one and a half to three hours, never at a hard boil, until the meat pulls easily from the bone. A rolling boil only toughens the muscle and clouds the broth.

This is the classic path to old-fashioned soups and stews. A hen is the traditional bird for Norene's Chicken Soup and Amish-Style Chicken & Corn Soup, where the long simmer gives a golden, deeply flavored stock you simply cannot get from a fryer.

The pulled meat then carries the dish. It is shredded back into hearty one-pots like Tavern Brunswick Stew and Brunswick Stew #1, or folded into a baked Chicken & Spaghetti, III. Country Captain, a curried braise, also welcomes a hen cooked until the meat slips off the bone.

Save the cooking liquid. That golden, gelatin-rich broth is half the reward and the base for the dish itself.

Pairing and Common Mistakes

A hen loves the aromatics of long cooking: onion, carrot, celery, bay, thyme, parsley, and plenty of black pepper. Its rich broth carries corn, beans, root vegetables, dumplings, noodles, and the warm spices of a curry.

The biggest mistake is treating a hen like a young chicken and cooking it fast or hot. Roast or fry an old fowl and it comes out dry and stringy, chewy to the point of inedible. Age demands moisture and time.

The second mistake is boiling instead of simmering. A vigorous boil toughens the protein and emulsifies the fat into a greasy, cloudy stock. Keep it at a bare simmer with the surface barely trembling, and skim the foam early for a clean broth.

Substitutes

If you cannot find a stewing hen, the best stand-in is a whole roasting chicken or its parts, simmered the same way. It will be tender sooner, in about an hour, with a slightly lighter broth.

Use bone-in thighs and drumsticks rather than breast, since dark meat holds up better to long cooking.

A capon or a large roaster gives more of the deep flavor a hen brings, especially if you add a few extra wings or feet for body. For the broth specifically, a good chicken stock plus cooked shredded chicken fakes the result when you are short on time.

Turkey thighs or wings can also stand in for a rich, gelatin-heavy poultry broth, with a slightly different flavor that suits the same stews.

Buying and Storing a Hen

Stewing hens are less common than fryers, so check older butcher counters and ethnic markets. They are usually labeled stewing hen or fowl and often weigh four to seven pounds.

A good one has firm flesh and yellow, plentiful fat, the sign of an older bird that will make rich broth.

Store a raw hen in the coldest part of the fridge and cook it within one to two days, or by the use-by date, keeping it bagged so juices do not drip onto other food.

A whole raw hen freezes well for up to a year; cooked meat and broth keep three to four months frozen. Cool cooked broth quickly and refrigerate it, where it will set to a firm jelly, a good sign of all the body a hen gives up.

Quick facts

In Chinese

母鸡

British (UK) term

Hen

en français

poule

en español

gallina

Recipes using hen

There are 9 recipes that contain this ingredient.

All 9 recipes