Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Turnovers

Chicken turnovers are pastry pockets filled with seasoned shredded chicken.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Turnovers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Chop the cold roast chicken very finely.

  2. In a saucepan, combine the chicken with a little water and gravy or butter over medium heat.

  3. Season the mixture with salt and pepper.

  4. Add 2 teaspoons of sifted flour dissolved in a little water.

  5. Heat the mixture through.

  6. Remove the mixture from heat to cool.

Shape the turnovers

  1. Roll out the plain pie crust thinly.

  2. Cut the crust into rounds the size of a saucer.

  3. Wet the edges of each round with cold water.

  4. Place a large spoonful of the chicken mixture on one half of a round.

  5. Fold the other half over the filling.

  6. Pinch the edges together to seal.

Cook

  1. Fry the turnovers in hot oil or fat until golden brown.

  2. Alternatively, bake the turnovers in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Cold roast chicken
Forms the main filling and supplies the savoury flavour of the turnovers.
Sifted flour
Thickens the chicken mixture so the filling holds together inside the pastry.
Gravy or butter
Adds moisture and richness to the chicken so it does not dry out when heated.
Plain pie crust
Encloses the filling and browns to form the crisp outer shell.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges. Moist filling can leak during frying or baking if the wetted edges are not pressed firmly together, so the pastry needs a tight seal.

“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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes