Bistro Butter Air Fryer Brussels Sprouts | Recipeish | Gustus Vitae

There's a version of this where you make a pan sauce. Shallots, wine, a knob of butter mounted in off the heat, a pan to scrub afterward. Skip all of it. Halve a bag of Brussels sprouts, oil them, hit them with French Bistro Butter Steak Sauce Seasoning, and let the air fryer do fifteen minutes of unattended work. Butter, garlic, porcini, and the whole tarragon-chervil-chive bistro herb rack are already in the jar; you're just applying them. Two ingredients, one basket, no pan to wash.

• Yield: 4 as a side
• Time: 20 minutes
• Storage Notes: Good for 3 days in the fridge, though they never make it that far. Re-crisp in the air fryer for 3 minutes; the microwave will undo everything.
• Difficulty: Very Easy

INGREDIENTS

• 1 1/2 lbs Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved through the stem
• About 3 Tbs olive oil, the grassy peppery kind
• About 3 1/2 Tbs French Bistro Butter Steak Sauce Seasoning, divided
• A squeeze of lemon at the end, optional

DIRECTIONS

1. Trim the dry stem ends and halve the sprouts through the root so each half holds together. Keep the loose leaves that fall off; those turn into chips and they're the best part. Toss everything with the oil until every cut face is slick, then toss with 2 Tbs of the seasoning.
2. Season in two stages. This is the whole trick. There's cane sugar, real butter, and delicate herbs in the seasoning, and fifteen minutes of convection heat will scorch the sugar and blow the top notes off the tarragon and chervil. So half goes on now to build the crust, and half goes on at the end, when there's still hot fat on the sprouts for it to grab. You get the roasted depth and the fresh bistro herbs, instead of choosing one.
3. Load it loose. Cut side down, single layer, a little space between them. Crowd the basket and you steam them; two batches beat one sad one. 380F for 14 to 16 minutes, shaking once at the halfway mark.
4. Finish hard. Tip them straight into a bowl while they're screaming hot and toss with the remaining 1 1/2 Tbs of seasoning. The butter in the blend melts on contact and turns into something that looks and behaves like a sauce. Lemon now if you want it.
5. Eat them standing at the counter, from the bowl, before anyone else finds them.

NOTES & VARIATIONS

No air fryer. 425F oven, sheet pan, cut side down, 22 to 25 minutes. Same two-stage seasoning, same result, more pan.

Make it richer. A tablespoon of butter melted into the bowl before the final toss turns the finish into an actual pan sauce without a pan. Dangerous and correct.

Go savory-sweet. A drizzle of honey or maple in the final toss plays straight into the cane sugar and Worcestershire in the blend. Add bacon lardons if you're that kind of household.

Not just sprouts. French Bistro Butter does the same job on halved baby potatoes, thick carrot batons, broccoli, cauliflower, or mushrooms. Same oil, same two-stage method, adjust the time.

The applications from here are endless: alongside a ribeye, under a piece of roast chicken, folded into a grain bowl, or piled next to eggs the next morning. But make the plain version first, hot out of the basket, and notice how little it asked of you.