Why it works: Thyme and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,973 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Broiled Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Broil the chicken
Preheat the grill.
Baste the chicken with broth.
Cook the chicken for 10 minutes.
Turn the chicken.
Baste the chicken again.
Cook the chicken for another 5 minutes.
Turn the chicken once more.
Cook the chicken for an additional 5 minutes until nicely cooked.
Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper.
Serve the chicken.
Stew the chicken
For stewing, cover the chicken with simmering veal broth or beef tea.
Cook gently for 45 minutes.
Remove the chicken.
Keep the chicken warm.
Skim the gravy.
Thicken the gravy.
Return the chicken to heat.
Serve the chicken.
Fricassee and sauce
For a fricassee, stew the chicken in white veal stock until tender.
Cut the chicken into joints.
Prepare the sauce.
Boil onion, thyme, and lemon peel in milk until reduced to ¼ cup.
Mix in boiled flour to thicken the sauce.
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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Thyme + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,973 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together27,047 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,585 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,171 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Whole chicken
- Provides the main meat that is cooked through by broiling, stewing or fricassee.
- Veal broth or beef tea
- Keeps the chicken moist and flavours the gravy while it stews.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the sauce, reduced with onion, thyme and lemon peel.
- Boiled flour
- Thickens the sauce as it is mixed in.
The step that matters
Mix in boiled flour to thicken the sauce. Flour thickens only when it is cooked and mixed in evenly; adding it to a hot liquid without stirring can leave lumps and a thin, uneven sauce.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, veal, thyme, lemon, milk, flour):
- Capsicumfits better
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, veal, thyme, lemon, milk, flour. 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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