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Fried Chicken

Fried chicken pieces simmered, coated in flour, browned, and served with a gravy made from the cooking liquid, flour, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chicken into small pieces and remove the skin.

  2. Boil the chicken in enough water to cover it, adding a little coarse sea salt.

Coat and bake

  1. When the chicken is almost cooked, roll each piece in flour and sprinkle with black pepper and salt.

  2. Place the chicken pieces in a pan, adding a small piece of butter on each.

  3. Baste the chicken with sufficient boiling water.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once browned, make a gravy using the boiling liquid, a little flour, and a well-beaten egg.

  2. Pour the gravy over the chicken and return it to the oven for a few minutes before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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
Coats the chicken and thickens the gravy so it clings to the pieces.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the chicken brown and taste savory.
Egg
Binds the gravy and gives it a smoother, richer body.

The step that matters

Making the gravy from the boiling liquid. Flour must be cooked in the hot liquid while stirring, or it stays raw-tasting and lumpy. Whisking in a well-beaten egg slowly and off heat helps avoid scrambling and keeps the gravy smooth.

“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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