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Chicken Smothered in Mushrooms

A roasted chicken smothered in a mushroom gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,525 recipes. Both carry trans-2-decenal, which smells waxy, orange. The science ↓

Chicken Smothered in Mushrooms

Oven, in the book's wordsA steady oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a steady oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Roast the fowls

  1. Split the fowls down the back and place them breast side up in a dripping pan.

  2. Pour the boiling water mixed with melted butter over the fowls.

  3. Cover the pan closely.

  4. Roast in a steady oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 1 hour.

  5. Baste every 10 minutes with clarified butter.

  6. Once tender and browned, remove the fowls from the oven and keep them hot.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Make the gravy by thickening the drippings with browned flour.

  2. Add the cut mushrooms to the gravy.

  3. Pour the gravy over the fowls.

  4. Serve.

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. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + mushroomtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Fowls
Provide the meat, which becomes tender and browned through slow roasting under cover.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the skin brown as it cooks in the pan.
Browned flour
Thickens the drippings into a gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavor.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and savory body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Covering the pan closely while roasting. Covering traps steam so the fowls cook through and become tender in the steady oven. Uncovered, the surface can dry out before the inside is tender, so the cover should stay on until the basting and browning stage.

“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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