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Fricassee Chicken

A stew of chicken pieces simmered in a white sauce with celery, salt pork, onion, and peas.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Fricassee Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the chicken

  1. Place the chicken pieces in a pot and cover with warm water.

  2. Add salt and celery, then cook slowly until tender.

  3. Remove the chicken and strain the celery from the cooking liquid.

Brown and make the sauce

  1. In a frying pan, cook the salt pork and sliced onion until the pork is crispy.

  2. Once the fat is hot, add the chicken and brown on all sides.

  3. Arrange the browned chicken on a platter.

  4. Remove the onion from the fat.

  5. Stir in flour.

  6. Gradually add the cooking liquid until smooth.

  7. Add peas or mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

  8. Pour the sauce around the chicken and garnish with toasted bread or crackers.

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 + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Celery + oniontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Peas + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together804 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexyl acetate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Cooked slowly in water to become tender, then browned for color and savory flavor.
Salt pork
Renders fat for frying the chicken and onion, adding savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce.
Chicken cooking liquid
Forms the base of the sauce, carrying flavor from the poached chicken and celery.
Onion
Softens in the fat and adds sweetness and aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir flour into the fat before adding the liquid. Flour must cook briefly in the fat to lose its raw taste and to thicken smoothly. Adding the cooking liquid gradually while stirring prevents lumps and keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, pork, onion, flour, bread):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, pork, onion, flour, bread. 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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