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Roast Chicken on Salt

Roast chicken seasoned with lemon, garlic, rosemary, and salt, cooked until moist and crisp.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and rosemary match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 845 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Chicken on Salt

Oven190° C
Time90 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Stuff the chicken with the quartered lemon, garlic and rosemary, then bind the chicken ready for roasting.

Roast

  1. Fill a baking tray with the salt and place the chicken on top.

  2. Roast for 90 minutes at 190° C. The flesh should be moist and the skin crisp.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

192Calories
32 gProtein
4 gFat
7 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 6 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Rosemary1 tsp dried (1.2g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

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 Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 + rosemarytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together845 recipes

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

  2. Clove + rosemarytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together519 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Garlic + rosemarytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,180 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + garlictop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,893 recipes

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

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 to moist flesh with crisp skin.
Salt
Forms a bed under the chicken that holds it level and helps the heat surround the bird.
Lemon
Adds aroma and acidity to the flesh inside the cavity as it cooks.
Garlic
Adds aroma to the flesh inside the cavity as it cooks.
Rosemary
Adds aroma to the flesh inside the cavity as it cooks.

The step that matters

Roast for 90 minutes at 190° C. Roasting time and temperature decide whether the flesh stays moist while the skin crisps. Too long or too hot dries the meat, while too short leaves the skin pale and the bird undercooked.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Oreganofits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lemon, garlic, rosemary. 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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