Skip to main content
Main

Chicken with Asparagus Tips

A creamy chicken dish with asparagus tips and egg yolk butter sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken with Asparagus Tips

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Rub the egg yolks and butter together to form a paste.

  2. Add the cream and stir until thoroughly blended.

  3. Season with salt and pepper.

  4. Add the asparagus tips and chicken, and cook for a few minutes.

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 + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,968 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + asparagustop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together539 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breast
Provides the main protein, which turns firm and tender when cooked gently.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and helps bind the egg yolks into a smooth paste.
Cream
Adds richness and body, giving a smoother, more cohesive sauce.
Egg yolks
Emulsify the butter and cream and help thicken the mixture.
Asparagus tips
Contribute tender texture and a mild, fresh vegetable flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the chicken for only a few minutes. Chicken breast is lean and its proteins tighten as they heat, so overcooking makes it dry and tough. Keeping the time short preserves the tender texture the recipe depends on.

Swap the asparagus

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

  1. Potatofits about as well
  2. Capsicumfits about as well
  3. Asparagusthe original
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, cream, egg, pepper. 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.

You might also like

Chicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesAsparagus SoupAsparagus Soup179 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipes