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Smothered Chicken

A dish of roasted chickens smothered in butter, water, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 ↓

Smothered Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the chickens down the back and lay them flat in a dripping pan.

  2. Pour boiling water over the chickens and cover with another pan.

Roast and baste

  1. Roast for 30 minutes, basting frequently with butter and water.

  2. Ten minutes later, baste with gravy from the pan.

  3. After another five minutes, baste with melted butter.

  4. Bake until the chickens are tender and well colored.

Season and serve

  1. Season with salt and pepper, thicken the gravy, and pour some over the chickens.

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 protein, which becomes tender and firm as it cooks through.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps the skin brown as it bastes.
Boiling water
Creates steam under the cover and mixes with the drippings to form the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering the chickens with the second pan. The cover traps steam so the birds cook gently and stay moist. Basting throughout keeps the surface from drying out before the chicken is tender.

“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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