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Chicken Turnovers

A fried or baked pastry filled with seasoned chicken.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Turnovers

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine the chopped chicken with a little water and gravy or butter.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, then add the flour dissolved in a little water.

  3. Heat the mixture until warmed through, then remove from heat and let cool.

Assemble and cook

  1. Roll out the pie crust thinly and cut into rounds the size of a saucer.

  2. Wet the edges of the rounds with cold water, then place a large spoonful of the chicken mixture on one half.

  3. Fold the other half over and pinch the edges to seal.

  4. Fry in hot fat until golden brown, or bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  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. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Cold roast chicken
Forms the main filling, providing the bulk and savory flavor of the turnovers.
Flour
Dissolved into the filling, it thickens the liquid so the filling holds together inside the pastry.
Plain pie crust
Encloses the filling and becomes crisp and golden when fried or baked.
Gravy or butter
Adds moisture and richness to the chicken filling.

The step that matters

Seal the edges firmly. Wetting the pastry edges lets the dough bond when pinched. A weak seal can let filling leak out and steam escape during frying or baking.

“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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