Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears (and a FREE recipe eBook for smaller holiday gatherings)

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If you follow me on social media, then you know I’ve been harping on and on about the Intimate Holiday Feast recipe eBook I made in collaboration with my mum - Saving Dinner - as a gift for all of you!

I decided to share my favorite recipe from the eBook here on the blog - my Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears. It is my favorite way to roast a whole chicken, and it’s sooo so so very good!!! I can’t praise it enough (please excuse my lack of humility).

We created this menu because we know a lot of families have had to cancel Thanksgiving plans due to the global pandemic (ourselves included), so we put together a slightly smaller, but still very special, holiday spread!

The FREE eBook includes 7 recipes: Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears (that I’m sharing today on here) + Quick Pan Gravy + Acorn Squash Stuffed with Sausage and Fennel Cornbread Stuffing + Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes + Green Beans and Chanterelle Mushrooms in a Garlic White Wine Sauce + Cranberry Apple Salad with a Maple Dijon Vinaigrette + and Leanne’s Pumpkin Cheesecake.

If you want to download the eBook (which I obviously recommend you do) just click here.

I promised to include modifications for the recipe if you are still roasting a turkey this year - you’ll find my notes on how to alter the recipe for a turkey listed below.

Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears (and a FREE recipe eBook for smaller holiday gatherings) — Inherited Salt (2)

Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears (and a FREE recipe eBook for smaller holiday gatherings) — Inherited Salt (3)

Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears (and a FREE recipe eBook for smaller holiday gatherings) — Inherited Salt (4)

How to Use this Recipe for a Turkey instead of a Chicken:

This method can be used on a turkey that’s 11 to 14 pounds.

First and foremost, the night before you roast your bird, pat turkey dry with paper towels then rub entire exterior and cavity in kosher salt. Place on a rimmed baking sheet, and put in the refrigerator uncovered. This dry brine will help ensure a more tender meat and crispy skin (two crucial elements that can often get screwed up when roasting a turkey). You can do this up to 2 days prior to roasting.

Since the turkey is much bigger than a chicken, you’ll need to double the ingredients in the original recipe (ie: two sticks of butter, 2 heads of garlic, 6 pears, etc).

Remove turkey from refrigerator about an hour before roasting.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees, and then follow instructions 2 through 6. When following these steps be sure to a LARGE (not medium) roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet. If you have a roasting pan with a rack, you can place your turkey on that instead of the pears, onion, and garlic if it’s easier for you.

Tuck tips of wings under the bird to prevent burning.

Brown Butter Sage Chicken with Asian Pears

The perfect roast chicken. Dressed in a brown butter sage compound butter that makes for perfect savory crispy skin on the outside, and wonderfully moist meat on the inside. The tender baked pears that cook in the drippings are the cherry on top!

Prep time: 20 MinCook time: 1 H & 45 MTotal time: 2 H & 4 M

Ingredients

Brown Butter Sage Compound Butter

1 stick of unsalted butter
1 ¼ teaspoons sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
6 cloves garlic
2 sprigs fresh sage, leaves removed
2 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves removed
1 sprig fresh rosemary, leaves removed

Brown Butter Sage Roasted Chicken

1 head of garlic, cut in half
2 medium red onions, quartered
3 medium Asian pears OR apples (any tart firm apple), halved or quartered
¼ cup olive oil
Sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 whole chicken (about 4 pounds), neck and gizzards removed

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
In a medium skillet over medium high heat, brown the butter. Once butter totally melts, keep over heat whisking constantly for about 3 to 5 minutes or until golden brown flecks start to form at the bottom of the pan. Once butter is a deep golden color, remove from heat immediately and transfer to a food processor (make sure you scrape out all the wonderful brown bits).
In the food processor, combine remaining ingredients for the compound butter (salt through rosemary). Blend until herbs and garlic and fully incorporated.
In medium roasting pan or rimmed baking sheet, combine garlic, red onion, and pears. Drizzle evenly with olive oil, and season lightly with salt and pepper.
Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Salt the inside of the cavity and put half the garlic and some onion and apples inside cavity as well. Gently sit the bird, breast side up, on top of the garlic, onion, and apples in the roasting pan - make sure the bird is slightly elevated on them so the skin crisps all the way around.
Gently loosen the skin on the breast of the bird. Then drizzle some of the butter mixture in between the skin and breast, then evenly and generously coat the rest of the bird with it. If any of the butter mixture remains, drizzle over veggies in roasting pan. Top chicken with a couple grinds of pepper and a little pinch of salt, then place in the oven.
Roast for 45 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and cook for another hour or until chicken is cooked through. Baste the bird with juices in the pan every 30 minutes or so. If the skin is beginning to get too dark anywhere, you can lightly tent the bird with foil.
Remove from oven and let bird rest for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve with the cooked apples and onions.
Preserve drippings for gravy.

Notes:

Hot tip: the compound butter can be made a week in advance. Keep stored in refrigerator. Gently melt it to slather on chicken if you make it ahead of time and keep it chilled.

Hot tip #2: It’s also an excellent compound butter for smearing on just about anything, we highly recommend doubling the recipe, using half for the chicken and chilling the other half to serve with dinner.