Brioche and thyme butter-stuffed chicken crown
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Easy - November 2022
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Serves 4 -
Hands-on time 20 min. Oven time 50 min, plus 20 min resting
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.
- 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.