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Broiled Chicken

A whole chicken roasted in a double broiler, seasoned with salt and pepper, finished with butter and garnished with parsley or watercress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Singe and draw the chicken, removing all pin feathers.

  2. Split down the back and clean the chicken with a wet towel.

  3. Break the joints and sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.

Broil and serve

  1. Grease a double broiler and place the chicken inside, skin side up.

  2. Broil the chicken over medium heat for about 20 minutes, turning frequently.

  3. Ensure the chicken is tender and nicely browned.

  4. Spread softened butter over the chicken and serve on a warm plate.

  5. Garnish with parsley or watercress.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender and browned under heat.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour when spread over the cooked chicken.

The step that matters

Broiling the chicken over medium heat. Turning frequently and watching the color helps the chicken cook through and brown evenly without drying out or scorching on the outside.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter. 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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