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Chicken with Lemon

A baked chicken marinated in lemon juice, oil, thyme, and garlic powder.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chicken with Lemon

Oven350°F
Time1 hour bake, then 15 minutes broil

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Mix all ingredients (but chicken) for the marinade.

  2. Marinade chicken for at least an hour, up to overnight.

  3. Place chicken in a baking dish.

Bake and broil

  1. Bake for 1 hour at 350°F, then broil for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

432Calories
32 gProtein
32 gFat
6 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Canola1 tbsp (14g)124
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Olive1 large (4g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Saladnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Lemon + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,973 recipes

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

  2. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Olive + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,948 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  4. Thyme + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,608 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,850 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through as the protein that the marinade flavours.
Salad oil
Carries the marinade's flavour and keeps the chicken moist during baking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps tenderise the chicken surface.
Thyme
Contributes herbal aroma to the marinade and the finished chicken.
Garlic powder
Adds savoury, aromatic flavour to the marinade.

The step that matters

Broil until golden brown. Broiling at the end browns the skin through the Maillard reaction, but the surface can burn quickly under high direct heat, so the chicken should be watched closely during the final 15 minutes.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, thyme, garlic):

  1. Lemonthe original
  2. Avocadofits about as well
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, thyme, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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