Skip to main content
Main

Broiled Spring Chicken

A simple broiled chicken seasoned with salt, pepper, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

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 Spring Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the spring chickens in half.

  2. Dust with salt and pepper.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil on both sides.

  2. Brush fresh butter over them.

  3. Serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Spring chickens
Provide the main protein, which browns and cooks through under the broiler.
Fresh butter
Adds richness and moisture to the surface and helps the skin brown.

The step that matters

Broil on both sides. Chicken halves are thick and uneven, so the broiler can scorch the skin before the meat near the bone is cooked. Turning the pieces evenly and checking the thickest part helps the meat cook through without burning the outside.

“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.

You might also like