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Broiled Chickens

A method of cooking whole chickens by broiling them after coating with egg yolk and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Broiled Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Split the chickens down the back and flatten them.

  2. Wipe the inside and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Prepare a mixture of beaten egg yolks and grated bread crumbs.

  4. Wash the outside of the chickens with the egg mixture.

  5. Sprinkle the chickens with bread crumbs.

Grill and finish

  1. Preheat a grill over bright coals.

  2. Place the chickens on the grill, inside down.

  3. Cover the chickens with a plate.

  4. Broil the chickens for about 45 minutes.

  5. Baste the chickens with butter just before finishing.

  6. Optionally, parboil the chickens for 10 minutes before grilling to ensure thorough cooking.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

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

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Chickens
Main protein; splitting and flattening them helps the meat cook evenly.
Egg yolks
Bind the coating and help the crumbs brown and adhere to the skin.
Bread crumbs
Form a coating that crisps and browns on the outside of the chicken.
Butter
Basting adds fat that keeps the surface moist and promotes golden browning.

The step that matters

Cooking the chicken through without scorching. Split, flattened chicken has thick joints and bones that need time to cook through. The egg and crumb coating browns quickly, so heat must be controlled to avoid burning the outside before the inside is done.

“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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