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Chicken Pie, Country Style

A baked chicken pie with a buttery crust and savory gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pie, Country Style

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken and gravy

  1. Cook the chickens in boiling water with the onion until tender.

  2. When half cooked, add salt and pepper.

  3. Remove the chicken.

  4. Strain off the fat.

  5. Return the stock to the pot.

  6. Simmer until reduced to 4 cups.

  7. Thicken the stock with flour.

  8. Dilute with cold water to pour easily.

  9. Add butter bit by bit.

  10. Adjust salt if necessary.

Assemble and make the crust

  1. Place a small cup upside down in the center of a baking dish.

  2. Arrange pieces of chicken around the cup.

  3. Remove larger bones.

  4. Pour the gravy over the chicken.

  5. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt for the crust.

  6. Work in butter and lard with your fingers.

  7. Add milk.

  8. Roll the crust to ½ inch thick for the top and ¼ inch thick for the remaining dough.

  9. Cut the remaining dough into 3 pieces.

  10. Braid the pieces.

  11. Place the braid around the top of the cup.

Bake

  1. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C).

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

Flour
Thickens the stock into a gravy and provides structure in the crust.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the gravy and tenderness to the crust.
Lard
Shortens the crust, keeping it tender and flaky.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the crust dough, helping it rise and lighten.
Chickens
Provide the meat and the stock that becomes the gravy.

The step that matters

Rolling the crust to the two thicknesses. The thicker top layer and thinner braid dough must be rolled evenly so the crust bakes through and holds its shape. Working the butter and lard in only partly keeps pockets of fat, which make the dough flaky.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, butter, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, flour, butter, milk. 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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