I made this recipe tonight and thought I’d provide some thoughts about the end result (you can see my interpretation here, with a link to the original–I would link directly, but I don’t want to flood that blog with trackback-spam).
The aroma was amazing while the hen was cooking and we were really excited to taste it when it was finished. It wasn’t very hard at all–simple as placing some ingredients in a pan and letting the heat do it’s work. However, you’ve got to handle the bird quite a bit, so if that makes you the slightest bit squeamish, you might want to look at a different preparation method.
The first thing I had to do was make sure the chicken was defrosted. I’m not sure how, but after two days in the fridge, the birds still weren’t ice free. No worries; I had to rinse them anyway, so I just did so under cool water. The ice came right off (or so I thought).
I get really nervous, though, about overcooking meat. I don’t want it to dry out, so I have a tendency to pull things out of the oven before I’m supposed to. The Gastronomist says to leave the hens in for an hour, which actually didn’t work for me. I’m sure this was one of two things: the hens were probably not fully defrosted or the oven is not properly calibrated. This would have been solved by using an oven thermometer or a good instant read thermometer. Unfortunately, I broke our thermometer one day when I was grilling (Hal’s Hint: They make special probe thermometers for grilling–don’t use the same one you’d use for regular cooking). Regarding over-cooking the chicken, if you notice it browning a little faster than you’d like, place a foil tent over the meat until you’ve finished cooking. This will prevent over-caramelization while still promoting even, thorough cooking.
Once we got the doneness right, the chicken was incredible. Very moist and succulent–my wife could really taste the citrus! We had a little trouble eating, though–cornish hens are a little, well, little. So, next time I’ll probably try a bigger bird, or I’ll just use thighs and legs. And, I’ll bet this would have tasted so much better if I had included more aromatics in my birds–as it were, I was missing sage (I used it for the pumpkin risotto), lemons, and parsley. Next time, I’ll stop being such a man and actually follow directions! 
Overall, we were impressed. And, believe it or not, this isn’t terribly expensive–the most expensive part will be the bottle of wine. Between the hens and the aromatics (but not the wine, because we had some on hand), I spent about $9. Not too bad for a “gourmet” meal!
Enjoy, and let me (and the Gastronomist) know what you think!
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