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Stewed Chicken with Noodles

A stewed chicken with onions, tomatoes, and browned flour, served over noodles.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 20,633 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Stewed Chicken with Noodles

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken and gravy

  1. Stew the chicken until tender.

  2. Season the gravy.

  3. Add browned sliced onions.

  4. Strain the chicken gravy.

  5. Thicken with browned flour and ½ cup tomatoes.

  6. Boil for a few minutes.

  7. Pour the gravy over the chicken.

Prepare the noodles

  1. Boil the noodles in salted water.

  2. Add bits of butter and grated parmesan cheese to the noodles.

  3. Combine the noodles with the stewed chicken.

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. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

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

  4. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Parmesan cheese + tomatotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,490 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Noodles
Form the starchy base that soaks up the gravy and gives the dish body.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and adds a toasted, nutty flavour.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth mouthfeel to the noodles.
Grated parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty depth and helps the noodles taste rich.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and colour to the gravy, balancing its richness.

The step that matters

Thicken with browned flour and ½ cup tomatoes.. Flour must be stirred in evenly and cooked through, or the gravy turns lumpy or tastes raw. Boiling briefly after thickening lets the starch fully swell and the flavour settle.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, parmesan cheese, flour, onion):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Chivefits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, parmesan cheese, flour, onion. 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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