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Maryland Chicken

Breaded chicken baked with butter, served with cream and mushroom sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Maryland Chicken

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.

Prepare

  1. Dress, clean, and cut up the chicken.

  2. Sprinkle with coarse sea salt and black pepper.

  3. Dip the chicken in flour, then egg, and finally breadcrumbs.

  4. Place in a well-greased baking pan.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 20 minutes at 400°F (200°C), basting with melted butter after the first 5 minutes.

  2. Serve with cream and mushroom sauce.

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

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

  4. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein; cutting it into pieces lets the parts cook through evenly.
All-purpose flour
Creates a dry base that helps the egg and breadcrumbs adhere to the chicken.
Egg
Binds the flour to the breadcrumbs so the coating holds during baking.
Breadcrumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer coating as the surface dries and browns in the oven.
Melted butter
Adds fat that promotes browning and a rich flavour on the coating.

The step that matters

Basting with melted butter after the first 5 minutes. Breadcrumb coatings can dry out or brown unevenly in dry oven heat. Basting adds fat to the surface, which encourages even browning and a crisp, golden crust.

“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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