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Chicken Souffle

A baked chicken soufflé made with white sauce, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Chicken Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the White Sauce until it forms a thick paste.

  2. Finely chop the chicken and rub it through a sieve or pound it in a mortar before passing it through the sieve.

  3. Mix the chicken with the sauce and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Beat in the yolks of eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Heat and butter a baking dish or several small soufflé cases.

  2. Just before baking, gently fold the beaten egg whites into the mixture.

  3. Fill the dish full and bake in a very hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for 8 to 12 minutes.

  4. Serve immediately, as it spoils if left to stand.

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. Pepper + chickentop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Sauce + chickentop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,513 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sauce + peppertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,303 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Egg + chickentop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Egg + peppertop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together50,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sauce and pepper barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,303 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

Egg whites
Beaten whites trap air, giving the soufflé its light, risen structure when baked.
Egg yolks
Yolks enrich the base and help bind the chicken and sauce together.
White sauce
Forms a thick, starchy base that holds the chicken and supports the rise.
Cold chicken
Provides the main flavour and body of the soufflé mixture.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently just before baking. Overmixing knocks out the air trapped in the beaten whites, so the soufflé will not rise well. Baking soon after folding keeps the trapped air in place.

“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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