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To Broil a Cold Chicken

A whole chicken marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, egg, and breadcrumbs, then broiled and served with a giblet and mushroom gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

To Broil a Cold Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Lay the split chicken, breast side up, on a plate.

  2. Pour and rub the olive oil and lemon juice marinade over the chicken.

  3. Cover with another plate and place a heavy weight on top; set aside for 2 hours.

  4. Rub the chicken again with the marinade, dip in beaten egg, then coat with breadcrumbs.

  5. Chill the chicken in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the chicken over a medium fire, turning often until cooked through.

  2. Serve with a gravy made from chopped giblets and mushrooms, added to boiling stock and thickened with brown roux.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,922 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Chicken + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  5. Lemon + mushroomtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 that cooks through over the fire.
Olive oil
Carries the marinade and adds fat that helps the coating brown and keep moist.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity to the marinade, which helps tenderise the surface of the chicken.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick to the chicken.
Fine breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the chicken.
Brown roux
Thickens the stock gravy to a smooth, flowing consistency.

The step that matters

Broil over a medium fire, turning often. Breadcrumbs can scorch before the thick chicken cooks through. Turning often and keeping the heat moderate lets the centre cook while the coating browns evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, egg, mushroom):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Coconutfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Pumpkinfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, egg, mushroom. 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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