Why it works: Chicken and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,092 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Boiled Chicken, Lemon Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Cook the chicken
Place the whole chicken in a pot and cover with water.
Add salt to taste and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 1 hour.
Remove the chicken and let it rest.
Serve
Squeeze the juice of one lemon over the chicken before serving.
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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Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,092 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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 protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through in simmering water.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and fresh aroma that brighten the mild, savoury flavour of the chicken.
The step that matters
Simmer until cooked through. Keeping the liquid at a gentle simmer rather than a hard boil cooks the chicken evenly and keeps the meat tender. Boiling hard toughens the proteins and dries the outside before the centre is done. Check that the thickest part reaches a safe internal temperature.
“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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