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Fricasseed Chicken

A chicken dish simmered in a butter, flour, broth, and milk sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the chicken

  1. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chicken pieces and cook until browned on all sides.

  3. Remove the chicken and set aside.

Make the sauce

  1. In the same skillet, add flour and stir to form a roux.

  2. Gradually add chicken broth and milk, stirring until smooth.

Simmer and serve

  1. Return the chicken to the skillet, cover, and simmer until cooked through.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and garnish with chopped parsley before serving.

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

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

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein; browning it first builds flavor in the pan.
Butter
Carries the cooking of the chicken and forms the base for the roux.
Flour
Thickens the sauce when cooked with butter to form a roux.
Chicken broth
Forms the savory liquid of the sauce and adds meaty flavor.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the broth and milk. Adding liquid to the roux gradually while stirring keeps lumps from forming, so the sauce turns smooth and evenly thickened rather than clumpy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Cinnamonfits about as well
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Nutmegfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

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