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To Broil a Cold Chicken

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

  1. Split the chicken down the back and lay it breast side up on a plate.

  2. Pour and rub in the marinade of olive oil and lemon juice.

  3. Invert another plate over the chicken, place a heavy weight on top, and set aside for 2 hours.

Coat and chill

  1. Rub the chicken again with the oil and lemon juice, then dip it in beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

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

Broil and serve

  1. Broil the chicken over a clear, moderate fire, turning often.

  2. Prepare a gravy by combining chopped giblets and mushrooms with boiling stock, 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

Olive oil
Adds moisture and fat, helping the chicken brown and stay juicy under heat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and slightly tenderises the surface of the chicken.
Egg
Acts as a binder so the breadcrumbs stick evenly to the chicken.
Breadcrumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating during broiling.
Brown roux
Thickens the stock to give the gravy body.

The step that matters

Broiling over a moderate fire, turning often. Breadcrumbs and oil brown quickly, so turning often lets the coating colour evenly and keeps it from scorching while the thick chicken cooks through. Too hot a fire burns the outside and leaves the inside underdone.

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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