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Fricassee of Fowl or Chicken with Mushrooms

A chicken fricassée cooked with mushrooms, onions, broth, and cream, served with parsley garnish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fricassee of Fowl or Chicken with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the sauce base

  1. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Add the chicken pieces and brown on all sides.

  4. Stir in the mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes.

  5. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

Cook and finish

  1. Cover and cook for 30 minutes until the chicken is tender.

  2. Remove the chicken and keep warm.

  3. Stir in the heavy cream, season with salt and pepper, and heat through.

  4. Serve the chicken topped with the mushroom sauce and garnish with parsley.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

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 browns for flavor and becomes tender through slow simmering.
Butter
Carries the cooking of the onion and chicken and adds richness to the pan.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture that releases into the sauce as they cook.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce and gently cooks the chicken.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the heavy cream. Once added, the cream should only be heated through, not boiled hard. High heat can cause dairy to separate or turn grainy, so keep the sauce at a gentle heat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, butter, onion, cream, pepper):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Celeryfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, butter, onion, cream, pepper. 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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