Let me start by saying you are going to love this chicken. Only after minutes of the chicken cooking my wife was salivating over the thought of these cornish hens (I was too).

Start by preparing your cornish hens. With your kitchen scissors, remove the backbone from the cornish hen, and discard, or freeze it to be used in making a stock. With the breast side down, take your scissors and cut alongside the backbone, on both sides, and remove. With your hands, apply a bit of pressure and split the chicken to flatten it a bit.

Add all of the other ingredients to a small mixing bowl, and do just that, mix, and mix well to form a loose paste.

Now get some kitchen rubber gloves on if you have them, otherwise, don't worry about it, and start rubbing that paste all over the cornish hens. Make sure you get in and under the skin. Place the hens in a ziplock bag, place in the refrigerator, and let them marinate for at least five hours.

Before grilling, remove the hens from the refrigerator and let them sit on the counter for at least 30 minutes to take any of the chill off.

Heat your coals. Clean and lightly oil the grill grate, and preheat the grill with the coals.

Add the hens, skin side up onto the grill, and let cook, uncovered for about 10 minutes. Cover, let cook another 15 minutes, then turn the hens over. Cook again, uncovered for another 10 minutes. If the coals begin to fire up, simply cover the grill, and then continue managing the heat.

Your goal is to get a nice and crispy skin, without burning it, as well as maintain a juicy hen. You will be shooting for about 170 degrees on a meat thermometer. Once they are fully cooked, remove them from the grill, and let them rest for about 10 minutes. This will allow those hens to trap in all of that moisture, and be perfect at serving.