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Pressed Chicken

A dish made by boiling chicken, separating and seasoning the meat, then pressing it with a weight.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Boil the chickens in water with salt until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones, discarding the skin, and separate the light meat from the dark meat.

  3. Chop the meat and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Press and serve

  1. In a crock or pan, layer the light and dark meat until all is used.

  2. Add the cooking liquid (about 1 cup) and place a heavy weight on top.

  3. Once cooled, slice the pressed chicken.

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 + 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

Chickens
Provide the meat that is cooked, shredded, layered and pressed into a sliceable loaf.
Cooking liquid (in the method)
Adds moisture so the pressed meat stays tender and holds together when cooled.

The step that matters

Add the cooking liquid and press while the meat is still warm. The liquid is absorbed into the meat and gelatin from the bones helps it set as it cools; the weight packs the pieces so the slices hold their shape.

“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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