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 ↓
To Broil Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Kill the chicken on the day it will be cooked.
Clean it thoroughly and split it open along the back.
Drain well and grease the chicken generously with butter.
Broil
Place it on the broiling iron with the inside facing down.
Cook primarily on this side, turning often until the outside is a bright yellow-brown.
Keep the chicken well buttered while cooking.
When done, pour melted butter over the chicken.
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).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat that cooks through over direct heat while its outside browns.
- Butter
- Adds richness and moisture, and helps the outside brown evenly as it cooks.
The step that matters
Turning often while broiling. Turning the chicken frequently keeps the surface from scorching while the heat cooks the interior through. Keeping it well buttered helps the skin brown evenly instead of drying out.
“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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