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Chicken Pie

A savory pie of boiled chicken with buttered pastry crust and creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Cook the chicken

  1. Place chicken in cold water with 2 tablespoons of salt. Bring to a boil, then lift out and rinse the kettle.

  2. Return chicken to cold water with another tablespoon of salt and cook until done.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. Once cool, remove large bones and neck, slice the breast, and divide the second joints.

Make the crust and sauce

  1. Sift baking powder with pastry flour.

  2. Work in ½ pound of butter and mix with 1 cup of sweet milk and beaten egg whites until soft.

  3. Heat chicken broth until boiling.

  4. Stir in ½ cup of flour mixed with a little milk, then strain.

  5. Beat in ½ cup of butter and 1 cup of sweet cream.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place a strip of crust around the top of the dish, about 2 inches wide.

  2. Layer the chicken in the dish, adding pieces of butter and white pepper between layers, and more salt if needed.

  3. Pour over the chicken.

  4. Roll out the remaining crust to fit the top of the pie.

  5. Mark the crust in squares.

  6. Wet the edges of the pie with cold water.

  7. Place the top crust on, pressing the edges tightly.

  8. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  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. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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 meat, cooked gently first so it stays tender in the pie.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and keeps the crust tender and flaky.
Egg whites
Bind the crust dough and help it set firm when baked.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a sauce that holds the filling together.
Sweet cream
Adds fat and richness to the sauce, making it smooth and silky.
Chicken broth
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savoury flavour and moisture.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with flour. Flour must be mixed smooth with a little milk before it goes into the boiling broth, or it forms lumps. Straining removes any that form, leaving a smooth sauce.

Swap the white pepper

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, butter, milk, egg, 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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