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Fried Chicken a LA Italienne

Fried chicken pieces coated in a tomato, onion, and parsley batter, then fried in butter and served with tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Fried Chicken a LA Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the batter

  1. Make a common batter and mix in the chopped tomatoes, onion, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Fry and serve

  1. Dry the chicken pieces well and dip each piece in the batter.

  2. Fry the chicken in plenty of butter in a thick-bottomed frying pan until brown.

  3. Serve with tomato 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + parsleytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,398 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Young tender chickens
Provides the main protein, which cooks through and browns in the hot butter.
Butter
Fries the chicken, conducting heat for even browning and adding richness.
Chopped tomatoes
Adds moisture and acidity to the batter, brightening the flavour of the coating.
Onion
Adds savoury aroma and sweetness to the batter as it cooks.

The step that matters

Dry the chicken pieces well before dipping. Surface water dilutes the batter and creates steam in hot fat, so the coating can slip off and brown unevenly. Patting the pieces dry helps the batter cling and crisp.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, parsley, pepper, chicken, butter):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Carrotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, parsley, pepper, chicken, butter. 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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