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Fried Chicken

A fried chicken dish with a crumb coating and creamy gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Wash and cut up the chicken, then wipe it dry.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  3. Dredge each piece in flour or dip in beaten eggs and then coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter and lard until boiling hot.

  2. Add the chicken and fry until brown on both sides.

  3. Remove the chicken, drain, and keep warm in a covered dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In the remaining gravy, stir in the flour and make it smooth.

  2. Add the cream or milk, season with salt and pepper, and bring to a boil.

  3. Pour the gravy over the chicken and serve hot.

Older chicken

  1. For older chicken, simmer in a little water until tender, then season, dredge, and fry as above.

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 + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

Flour and butter 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein, which is cooked through and browned by frying.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumb coating to the chicken so it adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned coating on the outside of the chicken.
Flour
Thickens the gravy and helps the chicken's first coating adhere.
Butter and lard
Fat for frying that browns the coating and adds flavor.
Cream or milk
Enriches the gravy, giving it body, smoothness and a mild sweetness.

The step that matters

Frying the chicken until brown on both sides. Oil must be very hot before the chicken goes in, otherwise the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy instead of crisp. Browning depends on this heat, and a crowded pan drops the temperature and steams the crust.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, egg, butter, cream):

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Turmericfits about as well

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