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Chicken Pie

A pie filled with chicken and a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Cook the chicken and reserve 4 cups of broth.

  2. In the broth, add 3 tablespoons of butter, 3 tablespoons of flour, and a little pepper.

  3. Reserve some gravy for serving and pour the remainder over the chicken.

Make the crust and bake

  1. For the crust, mix 2 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and 2 teaspoons of baking powder.

  2. Cut in 2 tablespoons of butter until the mixture is crumbly.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the beaten egg and 1 cup of milk, then add to the flour mixture.

  4. Drop or roll out the dough and place it in a pie pan.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Flour
Thickens the broth into gravy and gives the crust its structure.
Butter
Adds richness to the gravy and makes the crust tender and flaky when cut in.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the crust rises and becomes light.
Egg
Binds the crust dough and adds richness and structure.
Milk
Adds moisture to the dough and softens the crust.

The step that matters

Cut in the butter until crumbly. Small, evenly distributed pieces of cold fat coat the flour and create layers and tenderness; overworking the dough develops gluten and makes the crust tough.

“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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