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'Welcome Fall' Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash

"Great meal to warm the house and welcome fall with the smells and flavors of the season! Chicken roasts with butternut squash, apple cider, and garlic. Even the kids will love the sweet fall flavor of the chicken and vegetables! Yields 2 large servings. As this dish cools on the table, the liquid and vegetables become wonderfully syrupy!"

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butternut squash and potato work together. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 166 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

2 large servings
Prep25 min
Cook1 hr

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. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Lightly oil a large roasting pan or rimmed sheet pan.

  2. Scatter the butternut squash, red potatoes, carrots, shallots and garlic in the pan. Drizzle with the olive oil and season with salt and pepper, then toss to coat.

  3. Pat the chicken leg quarters dry and season them with salt and pepper. Rub them all over with the softened butter and sprinkle with the pumpkin pie spice.

  4. Nestle the chicken leg quarters skin side up among the vegetables. Roast for 30 minutes.

  5. Stir the apple cider and honey together in a small bowl. Spoon some of the mixture over the chicken and vegetables.

  6. Continue roasting for 25 to 30 minutes, basting with the remaining cider mixture every 10 minutes, until the chicken skin is crisp and golden and the vegetables are tender.

  7. Check that the thickest part of the chicken reaches 165°F (74°C) with a meat thermometer. If not, roast a few minutes longer and check again.

  8. Rest the chicken for 5 minutes before serving with the roasted vegetables and pan juices.

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. Butternut squash + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together166 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Apple + cidertop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,042 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  3. Garlic + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Potato + carrottop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,105 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  5. Potato + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,512 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butternut squash, potato, carrot, shallot, garlic, cider, olive):

  1. Cherryabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Applethe original
  3. Pumpkinabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Limeabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against butternut squash, potato, carrot, shallot, garlic, cider, olive. 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).