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Broiled Chicken

A whole chicken is cleaned, steamed, then broiled with butter, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the chicken, removing all pin-feathers.

  2. Split the chicken down the back.

  3. Wipe it with a damp towel.

Steam and broil

  1. Steam the chicken by placing it in a dripping pan filled with boiling water, covering it with a tin pan, and steaming for 30 minutes.

  2. Transfer the chicken to a wire broiler, placing the inside facing the fire first.

  3. Cover the broiler with a tin pan and broil, turning frequently until tender and brown, about 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Place the chicken on a warmed platter.

  2. Spread with butter and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

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. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which turns tender and cooks through during steaming and broiling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the cooked surface, carrying flavor and moisture.

The step that matters

Steaming before broiling. Steaming first cooks the chicken through gently while the broiler then browns the outside. Broiling alone risks a dry, scorched exterior with an undercooked interior, so the two stages must both be completed.

“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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