Orange Cardamom Compound Butter

I’ve been watching all those “Chopped” Thanksgiving episodes to see if someone pulls oranges & cardamom out of their basket… Not having much luck with The Food Channel’s offerings, I decided to try my hand at something simple with this month’s Improv Challenge’s ingredients chosen by Kristen: cardamom and orange.I’m thankful there’s a lovely orange tree in our back yard; but I did have to go to the Asian market to find my cardamom.I “loosely” followed compound butter recipes I found all over the web. For my taste, however, next time I’ll use less cardamom, a little more honey and add smoked paprika, I think. Here’s what I made:

• 1 lb. butter, room temperature
• 2 t. fresh-ground cardamom
• 2 T. orange zest
• 2 T. fresh orange juice
• 2 T. honey

Beat all ingredients until well blended. Transfer to plastic wrap, roll into “log” and refrigerate. Here’s my story in pictures:I stuffed the skin of two chickens. They were roasted at 425° for 60 minutes.I also made a pilaf utilizing the compounded butter.
Short work was made of the hens…