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Grandmother's Fried Chicken

A fried chicken recipe with a creamy gravy made from lard, bacon fat, flour, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,389 recipes. Both carry 1-hexanal, which smells fruit. The science ↓

Grandmother's Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Disjoint the chicken.

  2. Wipe each piece clean with a wet cloth.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Dredge in flour.

Fry the chicken

  1. In a frying pan, heat lard and bacon fat.

  2. Fry a few pieces of chicken at a time, turning until browned on both sides.

  3. Keep fried chicken warm under a dish over hot water.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Pour off all fat from the pan except for 2 tablespoons.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of flour to the fat and mix until smooth.

  3. Stir in 1 cup of milk and cook until it boils.

  4. Season the gravy with salt and pepper.

  5. Serve separately from the chicken.

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 + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  2. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Pepper + milktop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together26,984 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Flour and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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 meat, which browns in hot fat to form a crisp, savory crust.
Flour
Dredging coats the chicken so it browns and crisps; flour also thickens the gravy.
Lard
Fat for frying that conducts heat evenly and browns the chicken's crust.
Bacon fat
Adds smoky, savory flavor to the frying fat.
Milk
Combines with the fat and flour to make a creamy, thickened gravy.

The step that matters

Turning the chicken while frying. Frying a few pieces at a time keeps the oil hot; crowding drops the temperature, so the coating steams and absorbs grease instead of crisping and browning evenly.

“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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