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 ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Wash and dry the chicken pieces thoroughly.
Dip each piece in flour to coat.
Fry
Heat lard or butter in a skillet until hot.
Fry the chicken pieces until they are light brown.
Remove the chicken and keep it warm.
Make the cream sauce
In the skillet, add sweet cream, a large piece of butter rubbed in flour, and salt.
Boil the mixture and pour it over the chicken, or boil the chicken in the sauce.
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.
-
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
-
Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
-
Chicken + creamtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,241 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
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; its skin and surface brown during frying.
- Flour
- Forms a coating that browns in the hot fat and gives the crust its texture.
- Lard or butter
- Conducts heat for frying and adds fat flavour and browning to the crust.
- Sweet cream
- Adds richness and moisture to the pan sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat and flavour, and thickens the sauce when rubbed with flour.
The step that matters
Boil the cream sauce. Flour rubbed into butter thickens the cream only when it is boiled, because heat swells the starch granules. Boiling too briefly leaves the sauce thin, and the cream can scorch if left unstirred.
“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 fried chicken recipes
You might also like
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipes
Chicken Panada75 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.