Skip to main content
Main

Roast Chicken

Roast Chicken is a whole chicken seasoned, basted, and baked until tender.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sage and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,445 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Roast Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Dress the chicken.

  2. Clean the chicken.

  3. Stuff the chicken.

  4. Truss the chicken.

  5. Place the chicken on its back on a rack in a dripping pan.

  6. Season the chicken with coarse sea salt.

  7. Spread the breast and legs with a paste made of 8 tablespoons butter and 2 tablespoons flour.

  8. Place strips of bacon over the breast.

  9. Dredge the bottom of the pan with flour.

Roast and baste

  1. Place the pan in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

  2. When the flour is well browned, reduce the heat.

  3. Baste the chicken every 10 minutes until cooked.

  4. For basting, use the fat in the pan or 3 cups melted butter mixed with 1 cup boiling water.

  5. Add boiling water as necessary to prevent the flour from burning.

  6. Turn the chicken frequently to ensure even browning.

  7. If a thick crust is desired, dredge with flour two or three times during cooking.

  8. Spread butter over the chicken for a glazed surface.

  9. Do not dredge with flour during baking for a glazed surface.

  10. Cook for about 15 minutes per pound plus an additional 15 minutes.

  11. The chicken is done when the breast meat is tender.

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. Sage + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,445 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + sagetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,388 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps the skin brown and crisp while basting.
Flour
Browns in the hot fat to form a flavorful crust on the chicken and pan.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the butter and seasonings to form a moist stuffing.
Bacon
Its fat bastes the breast meat and adds savory flavor as it renders.

The step that matters

Adding boiling water to the pan. Flour in the pan can scorch and turn bitter at roasting heat. Adding boiling water as needed keeps the pan liquid, so the flour browns to a rich color rather than burning.

Swap the sage

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Sagethe original

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

More roast chicken recipes

Stuffed 5Country 3French 3 See all 197 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes