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Braised Chicken

A braised chicken cooked with salt pork, water, and a browned flour glaze.

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 ↓

Braised Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare and braise

  1. Clean, wash, and stuff the chickens.

  2. Lay the slices of fat salt pork in a broad saucepan.

  3. Place the chickens on top and cover their breasts with thin slices of pork.

  4. Add 2 cups of hot water to the pan.

  5. Cover securely.

  6. Cook slowly for 1.5 hours or longer if the chickens are tough.

  7. Remove the chickens to a hot dish and cover to keep warm.

  8. Strain the gravy and return half to a small saucepan.

Make the glaze and bake

  1. Add a little browned flour mixed with cold water and boil until it forms a bright brown glaze.

  2. Place the chickens in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

  3. Remove the pork.

  4. Brush the chickens with the glaze.

  5. Bake until browned.

  6. Serve.

Finish the gravy

  1. Take the fat from the reserved gravy.

  2. Add the water used to boil the giblets.

  3. Add the chopped giblets.

  4. Add a little browned flour and pepper.

  5. Boil.

  6. Serve in a gravy boat.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,559 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

Chicken and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,559 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

Whole chickens
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Fat salt pork
Renders fat and flavour into the pan and keeps the chicken moist while it cooks.
Browned flour
Thickens the gravy and, with cold water, forms a glaze that browns the chicken.

The step that matters

Cook slowly with the pan covered. Slow, covered cooking over gentle heat breaks down connective tissue in tough chicken while trapping moisture, so the meat becomes tender rather than dry. Rushing it with high heat toughens the meat.

“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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