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Spring Chicken

A roasted chicken served with butter and cress.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and olive are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,888 recipes. Both carry acetic acid hexyl ester, which smells sweet, green. The science ↓

Spring Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and cook

  1. Cut the chicken into pieces as for stewing and dust with salt and pepper.

  2. Heat the olive oil in a pan and add the chicken.

  3. Cook slowly until well done and nicely browned, turning to cook the other side.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove the chicken to a hot platter, add bits of butter on top, and place in the oven for a moment.

  2. Serve garnished with cress.

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 + olivetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,888 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).

  2. Olive + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,263 recipes

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

  3. Olive + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,887 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which firms and browns as it cooks.
Olive oil
Conducts heat in the pan and helps the chicken brown evenly.
Butter
Adds richness and a rounded flavour when melted over the hot chicken.

The step that matters

Cooking the chicken slowly until well done and nicely browned. Low, steady heat lets the chicken cook through while the surface browns gradually. Browning comes from Maillard reactions on a dry surface, so the chicken should be turned so both sides colour without the pan being crowded or the meat steaming.

“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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