
Brioche and thyme butter-stuffed chicken crown
- Published: 14 Nov 22
- Updated: 25 Mar 24
A top-quality chicken makes a great alternative to turkey for a small Christmas gathering. It’s cheaper and less prone to drying out. Plus, if you slather it in butter whizzed up with thyme and brioche like chef Sally Abe does here, it tastes incredible.

Prefer the whole bird? Try our easy Christmas roast chicken.
Sally’s story: One of London’s leading chefs, Sally has worked in illustrious restaurants such as The Ledbury, The Harwood Arms and The Square. Now running critically acclaimed restaurant The Pem at Conrad London St James in Westminster, Sally’s also an advocate for women in hospitality. She reached the banquet stage in the 2022 series of Great British Menu.
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Serves 4
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Hands-on time 20 min. Oven time 50 min, plus 20 min resting
Ingredients
- 1 large free-range chicken (about 2kg)
- 100g brioche
- 3 thyme sprigs, leaves picked, plus extra sprigs to garnish
- 100g unsalted butter, chilled and diced
- 1 lemon
Specialist kit
- Piping bag
Method
- Put the chicken on a board and, using a sharp knife, cut into where the thigh meets the rest of the bird to expose the ball joint. Pull the whole leg away from the carcass, twisting until it comes apart, then use the knife to cut through the skin around the joint. Repeat with the other leg. Reserve the legs for another dish.
- Remove the wings in a similar way: cut through where they meet the main body of the bird, then twist and pull until they separate, cutting through the skin surrounding the joint. Save these wings to make gravy.
- Finally, you need to remove the backbone. With the chicken breast-side up, use your knife or kitchen scissors to follow the natural line underneath the breasts and the ribcage, where the cavity begins. Continue to cut through the chicken following this line until the backbone is separated. Save this for stock. Set aside.
- Heat the oven to 120°C fan/gas 1. Whizz the brioche in a food processor to form breadcrumbs, then spread them out evenly in a baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes to dry them out a little.
- Put the breadcrumbs back in the food processor, adding the thyme and butter. Whizz again until combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper, then transfer to a piping bag.
- Using 2 fingers and starting from the neck end, carefully separate the chicken skin from the breast meat. Wriggle your fingers and push down on the breast and the skin should come away easily.
- Cut a 2cm hole in the end of the piping bag and pipe the butter mixture under the skin of each breast. Press down gently on the skin to push the butter around and ensure a complete, even coverage. Pull any excess skin over the holes you’ve made to help secure the stuffing in place. Keep in the fridge until ready to cook, but remember to allow the crown to come back up to room temperature before roasting. (This will take about 30 minutes.)
- Heat the oven to 180°C fan/gas 6. Season the chicken with plenty of salt, then put it in a roasting dish. Halve the lemon and place it underneath the crown in the cavity. Roast for 30-35 minutes – if you have a thermometer, the internal temperature should be 70°C (it will increase by a few degrees whilst resting). Leave to rest for at least 20 minutes.
- To serve, carve the whole breasts off the chicken, then neatly slice on a board (otherwise the stuffing will fall out).
- Recipe from December 2022 Issue
Nutrition
- Calories
- 955kcals
- Fat
- 59.7g (33.8g saturated)
- Protein
- 77.6g
- Carbohydrates
- 26.5g (6.6g sugars)
- Fibre
- 1g
- Salt
- 1.1g
delicious. tips
Timesaver: If crowning your own chicken isn’t your idea of fun, ask a butcher to do it for you (and skip the first 3 steps of the recipe). Just make sure you get the legs, wings and other offcuts to use in other dishes or for gravy.
Scale it up: More than four at the dinner table? Find a bigger chicken or cook 2 crowns – just up the amount of brioche butter. Any leftover butter can be used to enrich bread sauce or added to roast veg for the final few minutes in the oven.
The butter can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and kept in the piping bag in the fridge, however you’ll need to let it come up to room temperature for a good few hours before it’s pipeable.
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