Name: Smothered Chickens
Ingredients: one cup of water; one tablespoonful of 28 exchan<; one tablespoonful of butter; one cup of milk; 28 exchan<; salt; pepper

Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Smothered Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the chicken

Cut the chickens open down the back and lay them flat in a dripping pan with one cup of water.
Let them stew in the oven until they begin to get tender, then take them out and season with salt and pepper.

Brown the chicken

Rub together one tablespoonful of 28 Exchange; Cook Book, flour, and one tablespoonful of butter, and spread the mixture over the chicken.
Put the chickens back in the oven, baste well, and cook until tender and nicely browned.

Make the gravy and serve

Take the chickens out of the dripping pan, then mix them with the gravy in the pan and one cup of milk.
Put the mixture on the stove, let it scald up well, and pour over the chickens.
Add finely chopped parsley to the gravy.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

257Calories

8 gProtein

20 gFat

14 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
Milk	1 cup (244ml) whole	149
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Water	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.

By Shutt, William E., Mrs., [from old catalog] comp. 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.

Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together81,283 recipes

Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together85,593 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Milk + peppertop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together26,984 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken (in the method): Forms the main body of the dish and browns in the oven as it cooks.
Butter: Adds fat that helps the coating brown and gives the chicken richer flavor.
Flour (in the method): Thickens the drippings into a gravy that clings to the chicken.
Milk: Enriches the gravy, making it smoother and creamier.

“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.