Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Broiled Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the chicken into pieces.
Place the chicken in a stewpan with enough water to prevent scorching.
Add a pinch of coarse sea salt.
Grill
Once the chicken is dry, place the pieces on a buttered grill over hot coals.
Turn the chicken frequently to prevent scorching.
Butter the chicken.
Season to taste.
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.
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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, and its protein firms and sets as it cooks.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness, and helps the surface brown on the grill.
The step that matters
Turn the chicken frequently on the grill. Hot coals can scorch the surface quickly, because sugars and proteins brown and then burn at high heat. Frequent turning spreads the heat so the pieces cook through before the outside darkens too much.
“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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