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Jellied Chicken

A dish of shredded chicken set in stock, sometimes with gelatin, served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and parsley are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,314 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Jellied Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken until the meat is ready to fall from the bones.

  2. Remove the chicken and let it cool, then shred the meat, discarding skin and bones.

Assemble and set

  1. Decorate the bottom of a mold with sliced hard cooked eggs and parsley.

  2. Fill the mold with the shredded chicken.

  3. Season the stock to taste and pour it over the chicken.

  4. If desired, dissolve gelatin in the stock before pouring.

  5. Place the mold in a cold area to set.

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. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Egg + gelatintop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Chicken + gelatintop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together137 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the meat that forms the body of the dish.
Stock
Supplies moisture and flavour, and sets to a jelly as it cools.
Gelatin
Helps the stock set firmly into a sliceable jelly.
Hard cooked eggs
Add a firm, mild contrast in texture and appearance when sliced.

The step that matters

Letting the mold set in a cold area. The jelly forms only as the stock cools and its natural gelatin firms up, so it needs enough time and cold to set fully. Rushing this step or leaving it warm leaves the dish loose and unable to hold its shape when unmolded.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, gelatin):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, gelatin. 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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