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Chicken Pot-pie

A savory pie with chicken, potatoes, and a biscuit-like crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓

Chicken Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Place the cut-up chicken in a pot and cover with cold water.

  2. Boil the chicken, ensuring it does not cook dry.

Make the dumplings

  1. Mix the bread dough with lard until it resembles light biscuit dough.

  2. Roll out the dough.

  3. Cut the dough into shapes.

  4. Set the dough shapes aside to rise.

Cook and serve

  1. Add the washed and pared potatoes to the pot when the chicken is almost done.

  2. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper when they begin to boil.

  3. Add the dumplings to the pot.

  4. Season the dumplings again.

  5. Ensure there is enough water to prevent burning.

  6. Cover the pot tightly.

  7. Do not remove the lid until the dumplings are cooked.

  8. Serve immediately.

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 + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  3. Potato + biscuittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Bread + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together319 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat and flavour, and its cooking liquid becomes the base of the dish.
Lard
Adds fat that keeps the dumplings tender and flaky rather than tough.
Bread dough
Forms the dumplings, which rise and cook into soft, biscuit-like pieces.
Potatoes
Add starch that thickens the cooking liquid and makes the dish more filling.

The step that matters

Do not remove the lid until the dumplings are cooked. Lifting the lid lets steam escape, so the dumplings can cool and turn heavy or doughy. Keeping the pot covered holds in steam that cooks them through.

Swap the potato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, bread, pepper, biscuit):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Mustardfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, bread, pepper, biscuit. 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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