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Fillets of Chicken with Forcemeat

Fillets of chicken filled with forcemeat and served with a ragout of mushrooms, chicken quenelles, peas or asparagus.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,047 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Fillets of Chicken with Forcemeat

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the fillets

  1. Carefully remove the fillets from the chicken, keeping the mignon and large fillets intact.

  2. Cut each side lengthwise into four fillets and pound to an even thickness with a broad knife wet in cold water.

  3. Place the fillets in a buttered baking dish, sprinkle with lemon juice, salt, and pepper, cover with buttered paper, and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 5 minutes.

  4. Press the fillets under a light weight until cold.

Make the forcemeat

  1. Remove skin and sinew from the chicken meat.

  2. In a bowl, combine the meat with 4 ounces of panada, 1 ounce of butter, salt, and white pepper, and pound to a smooth paste, adding 2 eggs gradually.

  3. Press the mixture through a sieve and spread it to a depth of ½ inch over the fillets.

  4. Smooth the tops and edges with a knife wet in hot water and trim the fillets if needed.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the fillets in a buttered sauté pan, add 2 tablespoons of sherry wine, and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until firm to the touch.

  2. Serve the fillets on a border of forcemeat or mashed potatoes, filling the center with a ragout of mushrooms and chicken quenelles, or peas or asparagus in a rich 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. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together891 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the lean meat that is pounded into fillets and forcemeat for a delicate texture.
Eggs
Bind the forcemeat so it holds together and sets firm when baked.
Panada
Adds body and moisture to the forcemeat, keeping it tender rather than dry.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the forcemeat and prevents the fillets from sticking.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a touch of acidity to the fillets as they bake in the pan.

The step that matters

Smooth and spread the forcemeat evenly before baking. An even layer of forcemeat, about ½ inch deep, cooks at a uniform rate. Uneven or overly thick spots can stay soft in the centre while the edges overcook.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lemon, pepper, butter, meat, egg, sherry):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lemon, pepper, butter, meat, egg, sherry. 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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