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To Broil Chickens

A whole chicken broiled with salt, pepper, and butter, served hot.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

To Broil Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken open through the back and remove the insides.

  2. Wash the chicken and pat it dry.

  3. Skewer the legs and wings down firmly.

Broil

  1. Place the chicken inside down on the grill.

  2. Broil slowly, turning every ten minutes to prevent burning.

  3. Cook for a total of twenty minutes.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and plenty of butter.

  5. Serve very hot.

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. Pepper + buttertop 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

Whole chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, cooking as one piece once opened and skewered flat.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, and helps the skin brown and taste savoury.

The step that matters

Turning every ten minutes. Turning the chicken regularly exposes each side to heat evenly, so the skin does not scorch before the meat cooks through. Broiling close to the heat source burns quickly, so frequent turning matters.

“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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