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Potted Chicken with Mushrooms

A pot-cooked chicken simmered with mushrooms and thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Potted Chicken with Mushrooms

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the chicken

  1. Melt the butter in a deep pot over low heat.

  2. Add the chicken and cook slowly until golden brown, turning occasionally.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, adding boiling water as needed to prevent burning.

Finish with mushrooms

  1. About 15 minutes before serving, add the mushrooms and simmer slowly.

  2. Thicken the gravy with flour 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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

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

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Butter and flour 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, and slow browning builds flavor on its surface.
Butter
Adds fat that carries flavor and helps the chicken brown evenly.
Mushrooms
Release moisture and savory flavor into the gravy as they simmer.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich gravy.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken slowly over low heat. Gentle heat lets the chicken brown evenly and develop flavor without scorching. Adding boiling water when the pot gets dry prevents the butter and meat proteins from burning, which would leave a bitter taste.

“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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