Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and Bacon {20 minutes}

Name: Brussels Sprouts with Chestnuts and Bacon {20 minutes}
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 20 min
Ingredients: 400 g Brussels sprouts (frozen or fresh); 100 g Bacon (thickly cut); 1 tsp Unsalted Butter; 100 g Chestnuts (precooked and peeled); Kosher salt & black pepper; Ice cubes

Jump to Recipe - Print Recipe

Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts, a truly festive combination! This super quick to prepare side dish is well suited for Thanksgiving or Christmas.

In just 20 minutes, the Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts are prepared and ready to be served.

I use frozen sprouts for this recipe for simplicity, but you can also use fresh ones.

We made this delicacy for the first time during the Christmas holidays with a grilled bacon wrapped venison tenderloin and duchess potatoes, and the whole family loved it. A chestnut and porcini mushroom soup started our feast, and Buchteln (Austrian yeast dumplings) with homemade vanilla sauce made the grand finale!

🥘 Ingredients

Brussels sprouts - frozen or fresh
Bacon - thickly cut
Unsalted Butter
Chestnuts - precooked and peeled
Kosher salt & black pepper
Ice cubes

See the recipe card for quantities.

🔪 Instructions

Fill a medium-sized pot with water and add a pinch of salt. Bring the water to a boil and blanch the sprouts in the salted water for about 10 minutes.

Prepare a large bowl and fill it with ice-cold water and ice cubes. After blanching, strain the Brussels sprouts, shock them in the prepared ice water and drain them afterward.

Fill a large bowl with cold water and ice cubes.

Shock the Brussel sprouts after blanching.

Next, cut the bacon into strips and fry them with butter in a pan. Cut the chestnuts into quarters and add them to the pan as well.

While frying, stir well so that the flavors of bacon and chestnuts can unite well.

Last, but not least, add the Brussels sprouts. Mix them into the bacon-chestnut mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste.

And as you can see, in a few simple steps, this delicious side dish is ready and waiting to be served!

Yum!

📖 Variations

The bacon can be replaced with pancetta, which gives the dish a very unique taste. Definitely worth trying as well, to decide afterward what kind of bacon is closer to your personal taste.

🍽 Equipment

Pot - for cooking the sprouts
Pan - for frying the chestnuts and bacon
Large bowl - for shocking the cabbage sprouts
Strainer

🌡️ Storage

Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts should be eaten immediately after preparation, and are not suitable to be kept in the refrigerator or freezer after preparation.

💭 Top tip

For getting crispy sprouts, it is essential not to boil the sprouts longer than the specified 10 minutes and shock them immediately afterward in ice water. Too long cooking or too late / no shocking leads to mushy sprouts.

Try this Air Fryer Brussels sprouts recipe if you're looking for a change!

🥄 More side dishes to try

Duchess potatoes
Austrian Erdäpfel Schmarrn - grated pan fried potatoes
Duchess potatoes on the grill
Stuffing outside the bird (created by Pass the Sushi)
Caramelized onions and mushrooms (created by Two Cloves Kitchen)

🙋🏻 FAQ

Why are my Brussel Sprouts Mushy?

If your sprouts are mushy then you probably overcooked them. When overcooked, they release excess sulphur which stinks! This gives even the best Brussels Sprouts recipes a bad reputation.
Source: the-girl-who-ate-everything.com

Are chestnuts and Brussels sprouts well-tolerated in fructose malabsorption?

Both are not ideal for fructose malabsorption, but as long as you do not eat them in large quantities and only on special occasions, they are tolerable. I do not recommend having chestnuts or Brussels sprouts on a weekly menu.

What is meant by blanching?

Blanching is a cooking process in which food, usually a vegetable or fruit, is scalded in boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (known as shocking or refreshing) to halt the cooking process. Blanching foods helps reduce quality loss over time.
Source: Wikipedia

What pairs well with Brussels sprouts with bacon and chestnuts?

Any kind of potatoes - mashed potatoes, fried potatoes, pan-fried potatoes, duchess potatoes, gratin,...
Meat - venison, pork, or cow
You can eat this version of Brussels sprouts without meat garnish because bacon is included already.
You can eat the cabbage sprouts with bacon and chestnuts just like they are without meat and potato garnish.

🤎 You might also like

If you make this recipe, let me know how you liked it by ★★★★★ star rating it and leaving a comment below. This would be awesome! You can also sign up for our Newsletter or follow me on Pinterest or Instagram and share your creation with me. Just tag me @combinegoodflavors and hashtag #combinegoodflavors, so I don't miss it.

📖 Recipe