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Chicken Souffle

A baked chicken soufflé made with butter, flour, milk, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Chicken Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Add the flour, salt, and pepper.

  3. Cook for 10 minutes, stirring until smooth.

  4. Mix the chicken with the remaining seasonings.

  5. Combine the sauce with the chicken.

  6. Stir in the beaten egg yolks.

  7. Cook over low heat for 5 minutes.

  8. Set aside to cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Gently fold them into the chicken mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into a buttered pudding dish or individual ramekins.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

  5. Serve immediately in the same dishes.

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. 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. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the sauce, and beaten whites trap air so the souffle rises.
Butter
Fat that enriches the flour roux and gives the base a smooth, rich texture.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a stable white sauce that holds the chicken.
Milk or chicken stock
Liquid that turns the roux into a sauce, adding moisture and body.
Chicken
Main filling, providing the savoury flavour and bulk of the souffle.

The step that matters

Folding the beaten egg whites. Whites hold air only while stiff; folding gently keeps that air in the mixture so the souffle rises. Stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves a dense result.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

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