Name: Chicken Cardinal LA Balue
Ingredients: 1 good quality chicken weighing at least 2 kg; salt and coarsely ground black pepper; butter (for sauté); 12 nice crayfish; broth (to boil the crayfish); 50 g butter; ¾ litre of thick crème fraîche

Why it works: Butter and crayfish work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 343 recipes. Both carry anethole, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chicken Cardinal LA Balue

Time5 minutes (boiling the crayfish)

Ingredients

1 good quality chicken weighing at least 2 kg
salt and coarsely ground black pepper
butter (for sauté)
12 nice crayfish
broth (to boil the crayfish)
50 g butter
¾ litre of thick crème fraîche

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Cut the chicken into eight pieces and season with salt and coarsely ground pepper.
Sauté in butter taking care not to let the chicken brown, then place in the oven to continue cooking, uncovered (keep the sauté pan with juices for later).

Prepare the crayfish

Meanwhile, take the crayfish and boil them for 5 minutes in some broth (your choice).
Remove the tails and set aside.
Grind the carcasses, pass through a sieve and mix the resulting purée with 50 g of butter.

Assemble and serve

When the chicken pieces are cooked, arrange them in a covered baking dish, taking care to place the thighs on the bottom to keep the white meat from drying out.
Deglaze the sauté pan with the crème fraîche and simmer until reduced to a nice sauce.
To finish, add the crayfish tails to the baking dish along with the sauce and at the very last minute, add the crayfish purée.
Adjust the seasonings and baste the chicken.
Serve piping hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

273Calories

31 gProtein

15 gFat

2 gCarbs

Counts 4 of 5 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 4 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Crayfish	not in our table	0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

Butter + crayfishtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together343 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Chicken + crayfishtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together69 recipes

Shared aroma: anethole (sweet, anise).
Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main meat; sautéing then oven cooking keeps it tender and juicy.
Crayfish: Supplies the shellfish flavour and the tails and purée that give the dish its character.
Crème fraîche: Forms the body of the sauce, adding richness and a mild tang as it reduces.
Butter: Adds fat and rich flavour to the sautéed chicken and the crayfish purée.

The step that matters

Sautéing the chicken without browning. Browning at this stage would toughen the surface and darken the flavour before the oven finishes cooking the meat gently. Keeping the chicken pale helps it stay moist and tender through the final oven cooking.

“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.