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A chicken dish marinated with oil, lemon juice, onion, parsley, coated in egg and breadcrumbs, broiled and served with watercress, brown sauce, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 17,808 recipes mention both. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken down the back and flatten it.

  2. Marinate the chicken in oil, lemon juice, onion, and parsley for 1 hour.

  3. Coat the marinated chicken in egg and bread crumbs.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the chicken over a clear fire until cooked through.

  2. Serve garnished with watercress tossed in oil and vinegar, and brown sauce flavored with sherry on the side.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,036 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + watercresstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together579 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Parsley + watercresstop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together469 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Egg + breadtop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together22,584 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Young chicken
Provides the main protein; flattening it helps it cook evenly under direct heat.
Oil
Carries flavor and keeps the chicken moist during marinating and broiling.
Lemon juice
Acidity in the marinade that tenderizes the meat and brightens its flavor.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the chicken so the coating holds together.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden coating that browns under the broiler.

The step that matters

Broil the chicken over a clear fire until cooked through. Broiling is fast and intense, so the coating can scorch before the thick flattened meat cooks through. Watching for even browning and checking doneness at the thickest part prevents both dry, raw-centered or burnt results.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lemon, parsley, egg, bread, watercress, vinegar):

  1. Shallotbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Asparagusbetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lemon, parsley, egg, bread, watercress, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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