Pear & Vanilla Bean-Brown Butter Roast Chicken

Though chicken does not often make it’s way onto the blog, it makes an appearance several times a week in our home. It’s cheap, it’s incredibly versatile, and it’s a staple that I turn to time and time again for dinner.

For something with so many applications, I sometimes find myself stumped when it comes to new methods of using up this popular poultry. That being the case, I was so excited for my friend Eva, who writes the lovely blog ‘Adventures in cooking‘ to write and release a book that is all about chicken. With 150 recipes accompanied by beautiful photography, I won’t be lacking ideas on delicious new ways to cook chicken for quite some time.

‘Adventures in Chicken‘ released today and I couldn’t wait to share this recipe, straight from the book itself, with all of you! This cookbook is chock full of delicious sounding recipes and encompasses a wide variety of  cooking methods and ethnicities, so deciding on one recipe to share was shaping up to be quite the challenge. Then I stumbled upon the words pear, brown butter, and vanilla bean and I new I’d found the one. I mean, brown butter alone is enough to stop my breath, but vanilla beans!? Yes please. And who doesn’t swoon over a seasonally appropriate roasted pear?

A whole chicken is first brined overnight in a salty vanilla/thyme mixture to ensure that the chicken stays moist and juicy while cooking. After it has been rinsed and patted dry, it is place in a roasting pan atop sliced sweet onions and pears. Eva’s book instructs you to dice the onion, but I left them in large wedges because I’m lazy. Browned butter infused with vanilla beans and allspice is brushed in and outside the chicken and then it all goes in the oven for a spell.

I served my chicken atop a warm farro and butternut squash salad, which was lovely. I can’t help but think that it would be stunning over a parsnip puree as well.

I’m a sucker for a roast chicken as it’s easy to prepare but gives an effortlessly stunning presentation. This pear and brown butter version is a chart topper for me, and I’m sure you’d feel the same way too!

Pear & Vanilla Bean-Brown Butter Roast Chicken

 

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Serves: serves 4

Ingredients

• Vanilla Thyme Brine & Chicken:
• 8 cups Water
• 6 tablespoons Kosher Salt
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• 1 teaspoon Dried Thyme
• 1 large Whole Chicken (about 5 pounds) innards removed
• Vanilla Bean-Brown Butter:
• 8 tablespoons (1 stick) Unsalted Butter
• 1 Vanilla Bean, split in half
• 1 teaspoon Sherry Vinegar
• ¼ teaspoon Allspice
• To Roast The Chicken:
• 1 large Sweet Onion,skin removed, sliced into 8 wedges
• 3 Bosc Pears, quartered and cored
• 1 cup Chicken Stock

Instructions

1. Vanilla Thyme Brine & Chicken:
2. In a bowl, mix together the water, salt, vanilla, and thyme. Place the chicken in a large gallon sized resealable plastic bag and add the brine until nearly full. Press as much air out of the bag as possible and seal. Refrigerate overnight.
3. Vanilla Bean-Brown Butter:
4. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Continue cooking the butter, stirring several times to ensure it cooks evenly, until it turns a golden brown and smells toasty. Remove from the heat and use a blunt butter knife to scrape the inside of the vanilla bean pods over the pot, allowing the small vanilla beans to fall into the brown butter. After scraping, add the vanilla pods, vinegar, salt, and allspice to the pot and whisk. Set aside and infuse for 15 minutes.
5. To Roast The Chicken:
6. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
7. Place the onion wedges and all but 2 slices of the sliced pears inside a small roasting pan.
8. Remove the chicken from the brine and, rinse gently, and pat dry.
9. Place the bird in the pan and rub with half of the browned butter mixture, inside and out, getting under the skin of the breast.
10. Stuff with the two remaining pear quarters. Remove the whole vanilla beans from the browned butter and place inside the chicken as well. Truss the bird. Drizzle the remaining brown butter mixture and chicken stock over the chicken and pears.
11. Roast for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 and roast, turning halfway through, for 1 hour 15 minutes to 1 hour 45 minutes longer, until a thermometer inserted into a thigh of the bird reads at 165 degrees.
12. Allow the chicken to rest for 20 minutes before carving.

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More Brown Butter recipes (in case you have an obsession like I do):

Zucchini Brown Butter Oat Cake + Apricot Caramel

Brown Butter Garlic Herb Mashed Potatoes

Butternut Squash Ravioli with Rosemary Brown Butter

Brown Butter Caramel Pumpkin Spice Mini Bundt Cakes

White Bean Puree with Brown Butter