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 Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Prepare and season the chicken as for Smothered Spring Chicken.
Broil and finish
Place the chicken on a greased broiler in a hot gas oven.
Turn the chicken frequently until both sides are evenly browned, exposing the flesh side longer to the flame.
Once browned, reduce the gas to low and cook until the chicken is tender.
Remove the chicken to a hot platter, spread generously with butter, and season with pepper and salt.
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.
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Whole chicken
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooking through to tender meat under the broiler.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture when spread over the hot chicken before serving.
The step that matters
Turning the chicken while it browns. Frequent turning and extra time on the flesh side help the skin brown evenly without burning. Reducing the heat once browned lets the inside cook through gently so it becomes tender rather than dry or charred.
“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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