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Poulets Rotis

A roasted chicken stuffed with a breadcrumb and butter dressing, trussed and basted with butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Poulets Rotis

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clean the chickens and prepare a dressing with bread crumbs, melted butter, parsley, salt, and pepper.

  2. Fill the cavity of the chickens with the dressing.

  3. Turn the skin of the neck inside out and fasten it with a skewer or sew it shut.

  4. Truss the chickens by pushing the legs under the skin and skewering them with the body. Tie the legs together below the drumsticks and secure with twine.

Roast

  1. Place bacon slices in a roasting pan and lay the chickens on top.

  2. Rub the breasts with butter.

  3. Add a tablespoon of butter and boiling water to the pan.

  4. Baste the chickens with melted butter every 10 minutes, allowing 15 minutes per pound.

  5. Baste the chickens with butter 15 minutes before they are done.

  6. Dredge the chickens with flour.

  7. Return the chickens to the oven to brown.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Bread + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,588 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main protein; the dressing and basting keep the meat moist during roasting.
Bread crumbs
Soak up butter and juices in the dressing, giving it a moist, tender body.
Butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavour on the skin.
Bacon
Renders fat into the pan, moistening the birds and adding savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Baste the chickens with melted butter every 10 minutes. Regular basting spreads fat over the skin, keeping the surface from drying out and helping it brown evenly while the meat cooks through.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, bread, butter, pepper):

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, butter, pepper. 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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