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Braised Chicken

A whole chicken braised with carrots, onions, garlic, parsley, stock, salt, pepper, and mushrooms.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Braised Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Draw, singe, and truss the chicken.

  2. In a baking pan, place the sliced carrot, onion, cloves, and parsley, then put the chicken on top.

Braise and finish

  1. Pour the stock over the chicken, add salt and black pepper, cover the pan, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 1.5 hours, basting every 15 minutes.

  2. Transfer the chicken to a hot dish.

  3. Strain the cooking liquid into a pan, add the chopped mushrooms, and stir until it boils.

  4. Remove from heat, season to taste, and pour over the chicken.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  5. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Young chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through slow, covered baking in liquid.
Stock
Braising liquid that keeps the chicken moist and forms the base of the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavor and body to the strained cooking liquid once it is boiled.
Onion
Releases sweetness and aroma into the braising liquid as it cooks.

The step that matters

Basting every 15 minutes. Regular basting spoons the hot liquid over the chicken's surface, keeping it moist during the long covered bake and helping it stay tender rather than drying out.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, carrot, onion, parsley, pepper, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, onion, parsley, pepper, mushroom. 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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