Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓
Fricassée De Poulet
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut the chickens into pieces, removing the giblets if using.
Soak the chicken pieces in warm water for 10 minutes, pressing them often.
Drain the chicken and place it in a pot with the back, wings, and thighs at the bottom, and the breasts and giblets on top.
Add the bouquet garni, carrots, and onions, then pour in chicken broth until it covers the chicken by 2 inches.
Bring to a boil over high heat, skimming off any foam for 7-8 minutes.
Drain the chicken, reserving the broth and bouquet garni, and cool in cold water.
Pat the chicken dry with a clean cloth and trim any unsightly pieces.
Make the sauce and finish
Melt the butter in a pan and sauté the chicken pieces until well coated.
Add the flour and sauté for a few more minutes.
Pour in the reserved broth until the sauce is very light in thickness.
Add the bouquet garni and a pierced onion with cloves and a half clove of garlic.
Simmer gently without boiling.
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.
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Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together29,058 recipes
Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
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Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,873 recipes
Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
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Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together21,601 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,850 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Coats the chicken and, with flour, forms the base of the sauce, adding richness.
- All-purpose flour
- Cooked with the butter, it thickens the broth into a light sauce.
- Chicken broth
- Forms the liquid that becomes the sauce and gives savory flavor.
- Carrots
- Add sweetness and aroma to the broth as it simmers.
- Onion
- Adds aroma and savory sweetness to the broth and sauce.
The step that matters
Simmer gently without boiling. Boiling the sauce can break it, toughen the chicken proteins and make the sauce cloudy or uneven. A gentle simmer keeps the meat tender and the sauce smooth.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, carrot, onion, garlic):
- Parsleyfits better
- Cuminfits better
- Thymefits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, carrot, onion, garlic. 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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