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 ↓
Broiled Chicken
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
Prepare the chicken for broiling and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Grease a broiler and place the chicken inside.
Broil
Broil for 20 minutes over a clear fire, turning to brown all sides evenly.
Ensure the flesh side is exposed to the fire most of the time.
To prevent burning, you can partially cook the chicken in the oven first.
Bake and finish
Place the chicken skin side down in a dripping pan, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and dot with butter.
Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes, then finish by broiling.
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.
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Whole chicken
- Provides the main protein, which cooks through and browns on the outside during broiling.
- Butter
- Adds fat and moisture to the skin, helping it brown and stay tender.
The step that matters
Turning and exposing the flesh side to the fire. Heat from a broiler browns quickly, so the chicken can scorch on the outside before the thick parts cook through. Turning it and keeping the flesh side toward the fire, or partly cooking it in the oven first, spreads the heat and reduces burning.
“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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