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Broiled Chickens

Two whole chickens are cleaned, split, steamed, then cooked over coals with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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 Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and steam

  1. Clean and wash the chickens, but do not soak them.

  2. Split the chickens down the backs and lay them on a gridiron or sticks over a dripping pan of boiling water.

  3. Cover with another pan and steam for 30 minutes in the oven or on the range.

Broil and serve

  1. Wipe off the moisture lightly and cook on a buttered gridiron over hot coals, turning when it drips.

  2. Cook until tender and brown without scorching.

  3. When done, place on a hot dish, butter well, and season with pepper and salt before serving.

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. Butter + peppertop 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

Chickens
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender from steaming and browns over the coals.
Butter
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the skin brown on the gridiron.

The step that matters

Cook until tender and brown without scorching. Surface sugars and proteins brown quickly over hot coals, so the chicken can char before the inside is cooked. Turning it often and keeping it buttered helps the skin brown evenly while the meat cooks through.

“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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