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Grill Chicken

A whole chicken is grilled in ghee, seasoned with pepper and salt, and served with a hot‑water gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Grill Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Remove the feathers from the chicken and cut off the head and legs.

  2. Cut down the center of the back, divide but do not sever, and remove the entrails.

  3. Flatten the chicken and skewer the legs together; twist the wings on the back and place the liver and gizzard underneath.

  4. Wash the chicken well in cold water to remove all blood.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat ghee in a frying pan until very hot, then place the chicken breast side down.

  2. Fry well on one side, then turn it over, sprinkling with pepper and salt to taste.

  3. Turn again and sprinkle more pepper and salt on the other side, placing a heavy weight on top.

  4. Cook until both sides are brown and tender, turning frequently to prevent burning.

  5. For gravy, add a little hot water to the pan after removing the chicken, stir, and pour over the chicken before serving 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 + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Chicken + gheetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together144 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).

  3. Ghee + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together690 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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 firms and browns as it cooks through.
Ghee
Conducts heat for frying and adds browning and a rich, nutty aroma to the skin.
Hot water
Lifts the browned bits from the pan to form a thin, flavourful gravy.

The step that matters

Turning the chicken frequently while frying. Turning often spreads heat evenly and prevents the surface from burning before the thick parts are cooked through. Pressing the weight on top keeps the flattened bird in contact with the pan so it browns evenly.

“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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