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To Boil Chicken

A boiled chicken served whole or sliced, with a sauce made from butter, flour, chicken broth, and finely chopped giblets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

To Boil Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil a well-grown chicken.

  2. If tough, add 1 tablespoon vinegar to the water to tenderize.

  3. If serving whole, stuff the chicken with bread dressing and tie it in shape.

Cook the chicken

  1. Cover the chicken with boiling water, add 1 tablespoon vinegar and 1 tablespoon coarse sea salt.

  2. Once tender, prepare the sauce by melting 1 tablespoon butter in a pan, whisking in 1 tablespoon flour, and gradually adding 1 cup chicken broth.

  3. Add finely chopped giblets to the sauce.

Finish

  1. If desired, place the chicken in the oven to brown.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Sauce + flourtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Chicken + saucetop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Chicken
Provides the main protein, whose connective tissue softens during gentle boiling.
Vinegar
Its acidity helps soften tough meat fibers during cooking.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and adds savory flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the broth to the roux. Flour whisked into melted butter forms a roux; adding broth gradually while whisking keeps the flour dispersed so the sauce stays smooth rather than lumpy.

“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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