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Stewed Chicken

A stew of chicken, pork, onion, and giblets simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Stewed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Combine chicken feet and giblets with 2 cups cold water and minced onion in a pot.

  2. Simmer until giblets are tender and liquid reduces to 1 cup.

  3. Strain the liquid and set giblets aside to cool.

Stew the chicken

  1. Place chopped pork at the bottom of a pot.

  2. Lay the chicken on top.

  3. Pour the strained gravy over the chicken.

  4. Cover tightly and heat steadily for 1 hour without boiling.

  5. Increase the heat for another hour, ensuring steam does not escape until the chicken is fully cooked.

Finish and serve

  1. Carefully transfer the chicken to a hot dish.

  2. Season the gravy, adding hot water if necessary, and strain out the pork.

  3. Chop the giblets finely, add to the gravy, and simmer for 1 minute.

  4. Pour the gravy over the chicken and serve.

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 + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  4. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pork + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body of the dish, cooked slowly in its own gravy until tender.
Pork
Adds savory richness and fat to the gravy as it stews with the chicken.
Giblets (in the method)
Add concentrated meaty flavor to the gravy once chopped and simmered.
Onion
Adds aromatic flavor to the cooking liquid as it simmers.

The step that matters

Covered gentle heat without boiling. Boiling toughens chicken muscle and can break up the meat, so the pot should stay at a steady gentle simmer under a tight lid. Keeping steam sealed in helps the chicken cook through evenly while the gravy stays clear and tender.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork, 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.

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