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Truffled Chicken

A chicken dish simmered, shredded, and served in a creamy truffle sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Truffled Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the chicken

  1. Simmer the chicken in enough water to nearly cover until tender.

  2. Let the chicken cool in the broth.

  3. Remove the skin and white meat from the chicken.

  4. Cut the meat into small pieces.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the milk, stirring continually until it boils.

  3. Season with salt and white pepper.

  4. Add the chicken, egg yolks, mushrooms, and truffles.

  5. Cook for one minute.

  6. Serve in small cups.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Mushroom + truffletop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,900 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

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

  5. Butter + truffletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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 and the bulk of the filling, becoming tender when simmered.
Butter
Fat that carries the flavour and, with the flour, forms the base of the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth white sauce.
Milk
Liquid that turns the roux into a creamy sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the sauce, adding richness and a silky texture.
Truffles
Provide a strong earthy aroma that flavours the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolks. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the sauce is boiling hot when they go in, they can scramble and turn grainy. Add them off the heat or keep the sauce barely warm before the final brief cooking.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, milk, egg, mushroom, truffle. 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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