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Broiled or Grilled Chickens

A whole chicken broiled or grilled, basted with butter, seasoned with salt and pepper, optionally served with stewed mushrooms or livers and gizzards.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Broiled or Grilled Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Singe and clean the chicken, then dry it with a cloth.

  2. Cut the chicken down the back and truss the legs and wings.

  3. Flatten the chicken and place it on a cold grill.

Broil

  1. Once slightly dry, transfer to a plate and baste with butter.

  2. Sprinkle salt and pepper inside the chicken, placing the inside down on the grill.

  3. Baste frequently and broil slowly for about 30 minutes.

  4. Optionally, broil the livers and gizzards, fastening them into the wings.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with melted butter or stewed mushrooms.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  5. Mushroom + livertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together572 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

Whole chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked whole after being flattened for even heat.
Butter
Basting adds moisture and helps the skin brown as it cooks.

The step that matters

Baste frequently and broil slowly. Butter basting keeps the surface from drying out while the skin browns gradually. Slow heat lets the thick meat cook through before the skin darkens too much.

“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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