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Baked Chicken

A whole chicken baked in an oven, seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter, served with gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Baked Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Dress the chicken and cut it in half.

  2. Soak the chicken in cold water for 30 minutes, then wipe dry.

  3. Place the chicken in a dripping pan, skin side down, without adding water.

  4. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the chicken for about 30 minutes.

  2. Remove from the oven and season with salt, pepper, and butter.

  3. Layer the pieces lightly on top of each other and cover well.

  4. Keep warm over a pan of hot water until ready to serve.

Make the gravy

  1. Make gravy in the pan where the chicken was baked, adding chopped giblets.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and encouraging browning on the surface.

The step that matters

Bake the chicken for about 30 minutes. Chicken is safe only when its thickest parts reach a safe internal temperature. Cut pieces and oven heat vary, so the clock alone can under- or overcook the meat. Checking the thickest part is the reliable way to know it is done.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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