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Fried Chicken

Fried chicken with a creamy gravy made from milk, cream, flour, butter, salt, pepper, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Select half-grown chicken, scald, clean, dress and disjoint.

  2. Wash and cut up young chicken, wipe dry, season with salt and pepper.

  3. Roll pieces in flour seasoned with pepper and salt.

Fry and make gravy

  1. Have in a frying pan one ounce each of butter and sweet lard, heated until boiling hot.

  2. Lay in chicken and fry brown on both sides; take up and cover until served.

  3. Pour about a quart of milk into the hot frying pan from which the chicken has been taken, allowing it to boil up.

  4. Season to taste, thicken with a little flour, and stir in one tablespoon of flour and a cup of cream or milk.

  5. Season with salt, pepper and parsley, if desired, and let boil up.

Serve

  1. Pour gravy over the chicken and serve hot.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

929Calories
53 gProtein
30 gFat
109 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)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 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. See the original page.

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

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Chicken
Provides the meat that is seasoned, floured and browned in the fat.
Flour
Coats the chicken and thickens the milk and cream into a gravy.
Butter
Adds fat for frying and rich flavour to the chicken and gravy.
Milk
Forms the base of the gravy, which thickens as it boils.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken in hot fat. The fat must be fully hot so the flour-coated surface browns and seals quickly rather than soaking up grease. Browning also builds flavour in the pan, which the milk later lifts into the gravy.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, milk, chicken, cream, pepper. 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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