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Broiled Chicken

A whole chicken broiled and simmered in butter and water, seasoned with salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the chicken for broiling and wipe it with a towel.

  2. Brush the chicken inside and out with melted butter or olive oil.

Broil and simmer

  1. Place the chicken on a broiler over a slow fire and broil for 20 minutes, turning often.

  2. Cook the inside first to seal in the juices.

  3. Transfer the chicken to a small rack in a skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter and 1/2 cup of hot water.

  4. Cover closely and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, or bake in the oven for the same time.

  5. If the chicken is not tender, simmer longer, adding water if it boils away.

Season and serve

  1. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.

  2. Add parsley.

  3. Pour any remaining juice or butter over the chicken.

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 meat that is cooked through, with its juices sealed in during broiling.
Butter or olive oil
Coats the skin to help it brown and adds richness and moisture.
Hot water
Creates steam in the covered skillet, keeping the chicken moist as it finishes cooking.

The step that matters

Cook the inside first to seal in the juices.. Searing the cut side over high heat firms the surface proteins and helps trap juices, so less moisture escapes during the rest of the cooking.

Swap the parsley

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

  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, butter, pepper. 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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