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Chicken, Devilled

A roasted chicken dish seasoned with salt, pepper, cayenne, mustard, anchovy, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and mustard are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,430 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken, Devilled

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Remove the skin from the chicken wings and legs.

  2. Score the flesh deeply in several places.

  3. Rub a mixture of salt, pepper, cayenne, mustard, anchovy, and butter into the chicken.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the chicken over a clear fire.

  2. Serve the fowl hot on a napkin.

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 + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Chicken + mustardtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,192 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, creamy).

  3. Anchovy + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

  5. Mustard + anchovytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together590 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Anchovy
Adds a deep savoury, salty note that rounds out the spicy seasoning.
Mustard
Adds sharp pungency that complements the heat of the cayenne.
Cayenne pepper
Supplies the heat that defines the devilled character of the dish.
Butter
Adds fat that carries the seasoning and helps the chicken brown and stay moist.

The step that matters

Broil the chicken over a clear fire. Broiling needs a clear, steady heat so the surface browns before the thick flesh dries out. Scoring the flesh helps heat reach the centre, but flames or smoke can scorch the seasoning and leave the meat undercooked inside.

Swap the mustard

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Onionfits better
  4. Mustardthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, anchovy, 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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