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Chicken a LA Terrapin

A roasted chicken served with a rich tomato sauce made from the pan juices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,031 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Chicken a LA Terrapin

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Rub the chicken with sweet oil, salt, and lemon juice.

Roast

  1. Baste the chicken frequently, cooking for about 15 minutes per pound.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Once cooked, remove the chicken from the oven and place it on a serving dish.

  2. Pour the remaining oil and juices from the roasting pan into a saucepan.

  3. Add the rich tomato sauce to the pan and boil down rapidly for 3 to 4 minutes.

  4. Pour the sauce over the chicken before serving.

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 + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + tomatotop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,592 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Tomato + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,469 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Chicken + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,092 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Roasting chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through by roasting.
Sweet oil
Carries moisture and fat across the skin, helping it brown and stay tender while basting.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the chicken's flavour.
Rich tomato sauce
Adds moisture and tomato flavour; reducing it concentrates the sauce for serving.

The step that matters

Basting the chicken frequently. Spooning the fat and juices back over the bird keeps the surface moist and helps it brown evenly while the meat cooks through.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, tomato, sauce):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Cherryfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, sauce. 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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