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Rosemary Lemon Grilled Chicken

"This simple, sensational marinade and sauce for grilled chicken features lemon, garlic, rosemary, and butter. Separate the marinade into thirds: 1/3 for marinating, 1/3 for basting, 1/3 for topping."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rosemary and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 845 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

6 chicken breasts
Prep15 min
Cook8 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over low heat. Finely chop the rosemary and garlic, then stir them into the butter with the lemon zest and lemon juice. Keep warm over very low heat.

  2. Preheat the grill to medium-high, about 400°F (204°C), and oil the grates well.

  3. Pat the chicken breasts dry and season both sides generously with salt and pepper.

  4. Brush the chicken on both sides with about half of the butter mixture, keeping the rest for later.

  5. Grill the chicken about 4 minutes per side, turning once, until it has good grill marks.

  6. Brush the chicken with the remaining butter mixture while it cooks, and keep grilling until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C), adding a few minutes as needed.

  7. Transfer the chicken to a plate and let it rest for 5 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Rosemary + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together845 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Rosemary + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Garlic + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Rosemary + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,179 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, rosemary, lemon, chicken, pepper):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Marjorambetter flavor fit
  3. Sagebetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, rosemary, lemon, chicken, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).