Name: Broiled Chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; butter; coarse sea salt; black pepper

Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 whole chicken
butter
coarse sea salt
black pepper

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.

Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Place the chicken on the broiler with the skin side up and cook until nearly done.
Turn the chicken and cook for a few more moments.
Transfer the chicken to a platter and dress with butter.
Alternatively, simmer the chicken in just enough water to cover until nearly done.
Drain the chicken and place it in a buttered dripping pan.
Season with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and dots of butter.
Bake in the hot oven until browned.

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.

Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Forms the main protein; cooking it through gives the meat its tender, cooked texture.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor and helping the skin brown.

“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.