Cheesy Creamed Brussel Sprouts With Chestnuts & Bacon
These cheesy creamed brussel sprouts are rich, creamy & full of crispy bacon & chestnuts. Wave goodbye to boring boiled sprouts this Christmas!
Even if you don’t like Brussel sprouts, I’m certain you’ll be a fan of this side dish! It’s super rich, creamy, cheesy & packed full of crispy bacon & chestnuts. What’s not to like! This is easily the best way to cook sprouts at Christmas & they take very little time to prepare & cook. Wave goodbye to boring boiled Brussel sprouts & make creamed sprouts instead!
If you’d like to read more festive recipes, take a look at our Christmas collection! We’ve got recipes for a wide range of dishes, from brie & cranberry stuffed dough balls to Baileys mince pie ice cream. Plus everything that you’ll need to make a restaurant quality Christmas dinner at home!
What You’ll Need
- Brussel Sprouts – You’ll need 500 grams of whole Brussel sprouts for this recipe. We trim & thinly slice these before cooking them.
- Streaky Bacon – Either smoked or unsmoked streaky bacon will work here. This needs cutting into 1cm lardons.
- Cooked Chestnuts – Make sure to use pre cooked chestnuts. These can be found in most supermarkets.
- Double Cream – For the creamiest sprouts, make sure to use double cream.
- Chicken Stock – Half a stock cube dissolved in hot water works best here. You can use vegetable stock instead if you’d prefer.
- Parmesan – Parmesan works great with sprouts. Feel free to use a different cheese if you’d prefer though, or leave the cheese out entirely.
- Butter – Added for richness. Unsalted butter works best.
How To Prep Brussel Sprouts
To prep the sprouts, first trim the base off each of them, using a small, sharp knife. The base turns woody once cooked so it’s best to cut it off. Next, remove any loose outer leaves as well as any that look bruised or damaged. In some supermarkets, you can buy sprouts that have already been trimmed, in which case you won’t need to prep them!
We now need to thinly slice the sprouts. You can either do this by hand or in a food processor with a slicing blade (this way’s quicker!). Once sliced, the sprouts can be cooked straight away or stored covered in the fridge for up to a day (they tend to dry out if left any longer).
How To Make Cheesy Creamed Brussel Sprouts
Creamed sprouts are quick & easy to make and taste so much better than boring boiled ones! If you like, you can get the sprouts, chestnuts & bacon sliced a day or two before you need them & store in the fridge.
Step 1 – Fry The Bacon
First, we need to fry the bacon lardons until they are crispy. To do this, we place a large saucepan over a medium heat & add in a tablespoon of veg oil. Once hot, we add in the bacon & cook, stirring frequently until crispy. This will take around 5 minutes.
Once cooked, take the bacon out of the pan with a slotted spoon (leave the bacon fat in the pan) & transfer to a bowl. Set aside for later. We’ll be using the bacon fat to cook the sprouts in.
Step 2 – Sauté Sprouts
Next, we add a knob of butter into the pan, leave to melt add in the sprouts & season with salt and pepper. We cook the sprouts for 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently until they’re starting to soften. We don’t want to cook the sprouts too much at this point, as they’ll finish cooking in the cream sauce.
Step 3 – Add In Cream & Stock
Now, we pour double cream & chicken stock into the sprouts then bring to a simmer. Then we need to cook the sauce until it has reduced by 50%. This will take around 5 minutes.
Step 4 – Finishing
Once the sauce has thickened, we add the crispy bacon & chestnuts into the pan & cook for 2 minutes to warm through. Then to finish, we take the pan off the heat then stir in two thirds of the grated parmesan. At this point, we need to give the sprouts a taste to check the seasoning, adding in more salt & pepper if needed. The bacon’s quite salty though, so you probably won’t need to add in anymore salt.
Step 5 – Serving
To serve, we spoon the creamed sprouts into a serving dish, top with the remaining grated parmesan then serve immediately!
More Christmas Recipes To Try!
- Goose Fat Roast Potatoes
- Sausage & Bacon Stuffing With Apricot & Pine Nuts
- Boozy Cranberry & Orange Sauce
- The Best Yorkshire Puddings
- Pigs In Blankets With Honey & Mustard
- Brie & Cranberry Stuffed Dough Balls
- Baileys Mince Pie Ice Cream
- Classic Mince Pies
Watch How To Make Creamed Brussel Sprouts
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Cheesy Creamed Brussel Sprouts With Chestnuts & Bacon
Equipment
- Food Processor With Slicing Attachment
- Large Saucepan
- Microplane/Grater
Ingredients
- 500 g Brussel Sprouts
- 100 g Cooked Chestnuts
- 1 tbsp Vegetable Oil
- 8 Rashers Streaky Bacon Smoked Or Unsmoked – Cut Into Lardons
- 20 g Butter
- 250 ml Double Cream
- 200 ml Chicken Stock
- 50 g Parmesan
Instructions
- Trim the bottom off each brussel sprout then remove any loose, outer leaves.
- Thinly slice the sprouts either with a sharp knife or with a food processor & a slicing attachment then set aside.
- Roughly chop the chestnuts then set aside for later.
- Next, place a large saucepan over a medium heat & pour in the tablespoon of veg oil.
- Once the oil's hot, add in the bacon & cook until crispy, stirring frequently. This will take around 5 minutes.
- Remove the cooked bacon from the pan & transfer to a bowl.Leave the bacon fat in the pan!
- Next, add the sprouts & butter into the pan, season with salt and pepper then cook for 2-3 minutes, until the sprouts have started to soften.
- Pour in the double cream & chicken stock then bring to a simmer.
- Cook, stirring occasionally until the sauce has reduced by half then add in the crispy bacon & roughly chopped chestnuts. The cream will take roughly 4-5 minutes to reduce.
- Cook for another 2 minutes then remove the pan from the heat.
- Grate in ⅔ of the parmesan then stir to melt. Taste the sprouts, to check the seasoning (adding more if necessary) then spoon the sprouts into a dish.
- Grate the remaining parmesan over the top then serve immediately.
