Brussels Sprouts and Chestnuts in Brown Butter Sauce

I love roasted chestnuts. Just the other day, I was thinking just how deep my love is for roasted chestnuts, so I bought some. Then, almost immediately after, I ran across this recipe from the New York Times for brussels sprouts and chestnuts in brown butter sauce.  I decided it had to be made, and it had to be made soon.

When I was young, I used to eat chesnuts all.the.time. My grandma would always roast a handful of them just for me, in the toaster oven, and I would devour them when they were still steaming.

Roasting chestnuts is really easy. You don’t even need an open fire 🙂 Just cut an X or a slit on the rounded part of the nut  (this helps the steam escape) and roast them in a 425 oven for about 20 minutes.  When they’re done, peel them and eat them right away. They are so delicious when they are so hot and fresh out of the oven. 

My love affair with brussels sprouts is, well, nonexistant. I don’t really have much experience with them, to be honest. We didn’t eat them growing up and the couple times I have eaten/made them, I tend to make them with bacon, wine and butter, sucking the health right out of them. I guess “indifferent” would describe the way I feel about brussels sprouts. That said, I figure when you are indifferent about something and you combine it with two incredibly delicious things (namely, roasted chestnuts and brown butter), it *has* to elevate it to a more positive level. And I was right. This was great!

I quartered the recipe, but otherwise made no changes. If you want to keep this vegetarian, just use vegetable stock instead of chicken stock.