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Fried Chickens

Fried chicken is a dish of chicken quarters cooked in lard or butter until browned, optionally with ham slices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Fried Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Heat lard or butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add chicken quarters when the fat is hot.

  3. Fry until brown on one side, then turn over.

  4. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and fry until brown.

  5. Optionally, add slices of ham to the pan.

  6. Drain off excess fat 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. Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,497 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

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

  5. Butter + hamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,475 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Young chickens
Provide the main protein; their pieces brown in hot fat to form a crisp, savoury exterior.
Lard or butter
Conducts heat for frying and adds richness and browning to the chicken skin.

The step that matters

Add chicken quarters when the fat is hot. Hot fat sears the surface quickly, forming a browned crust and limiting how much oil the chicken absorbs. Adding pieces to cool fat leads to greasy, pale results.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Thymefits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celeryfits about as well

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