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Chicken a LA Reine

A roasted chicken dish with pork, carrot, onion, white stock, sweet herbs, served with Hollandaise sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Chicken a LA Reine

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Dredge the chickens with salt, pepper, and flour.

  3. In a stewpan, heat half of the pork with carrot and onion until it begins to color.

  4. Add the chickens and the remaining pork on top.

  5. Pour in white stock to half cover the chickens and add the sweet herbs.

Braise and serve

  1. Cover the pan and place it in the oven.

  2. Baste the chickens every few minutes and cook for one hour.

  3. After one hour, turn the chickens over and continue cooking for a total of about two hours.

  4. Serve with Hollandaise sauce.

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 + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

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

  5. Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow, covered cooking.
Pork
Adds savory fat and flavor that enriches the braising liquid and the chicken.
White stock
Provides moisture and liquid for gentle braising, keeping the chicken from drying out.
Flour
Dredging coats the chicken surface, helping it brown and thickening the cooking juices.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it colors, adding aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Hollandaise sauce
Adds rich, buttery fat and acidity that contrasts with the savory chicken.

The step that matters

Basting and turning the chickens. Basting keeps the surface moist and encourages even browning, while turning exposes all sides to the heat so the birds cook evenly and do not dry out on top.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, pork, onion, sauce):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Mustardfits better
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, flour, pork, onion, sauce. 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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