Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Fricassee

A stew of chicken simmered in water, then coated with flour and browned, finished with a cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Singe the chicken.

  2. Cut the chicken into pieces.

  3. Cover the chicken with boiling water.

  4. Add salt and pepper.

  5. Simmer for one hour until tender, reducing water to nearly a pint.

  6. Dredge the chicken with salt, pepper, and flour.

  7. Brown the chicken in hot butter.

  8. Place the chicken on toast on a hot platter.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain the liquid.

  2. Remove the fat.

  3. Heat the liquid with cream or milk.

  4. Melt butter in a saucepan.

  5. Add flour to the melted butter. Mix well.

  6. Slowly pour in the cream and chicken liquid.

  7. Add salt and pepper to taste.

  8. Beat the egg.

  9. Pour the sauce slowly over the beaten egg. Stir well.

  10. Pour the sauce over the 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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

Flour and butter 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; simmering makes the meat tender and yields flavourful broth.
Flour
Thickens the butter and liquid into a smooth, lightly bound sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour, and browns the chicken pieces.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and body, giving the sauce a smooth, creamy texture.
Egg
Enriches and thickens the sauce when warm sauce is added to it.

The step that matters

Pour the sauce slowly over the beaten egg. Adding hot sauce too quickly can scramble the egg. Pouring slowly while stirring gently warms the egg so it blends smoothly and thickens the sauce without curdling.

“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.

More chicken fricassee recipes

with Mushrooms 6White 6Cold 4with Tomato Sauce 3 See all 369 →

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes