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Chicken Pie

A layered pastry pie with chicken, potatoes, ham, and a buttery sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 18 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

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 the chicken

  1. Make a rich pastry and refrigerate until ready to use.

  2. Prepare the chicken by drawing, singeing, and cleaning it.

  3. Cut the chicken as for Chicken Fricassee.

  4. Season the chicken with salt, pepper, and ginger.

  5. Let the seasoned chicken stand for 2-3 hours.

  6. Cover the chicken with water in a kettle, add the onion, bay leaf, and parsley, and cook slowly until tender.

  7. Peel and cut the potatoes into small pieces.

  8. Parboil the potatoes for 15 minutes.

  9. Drain the potatoes.

Assemble the pie

  1. Grease a pudding dish and line it with pastry.

  2. Layer the potatoes, chicken, chopped ham, parsley, celery, and bits of butter.

  3. Season the layers as needed.

  4. Repeat the layers.

  5. Roll out the remaining pastry.

  6. Cut a hole in the center of the pastry.

  7. Wet the edges of the pastry.

  8. Cover the dish with the pastry.

  9. Press the edges together and trim.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake the pie in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crust is golden brown.

  2. Brown 1 tablespoon of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour in a pan.

  3. Gradually add 2 cups of chicken stock, stirring constantly until it boils.

  4. Season the sauce with salt, pepper, ginger, and nutmeg.

  5. Remove the sauce from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolk and a little chopped parsley.

  6. Pour the sauce into the pie through the opening in the upper crust.

  7. Serve immediately.

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. Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  4. Parsley + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,855 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

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 and savoury flavour once cooked tender.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and stock.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and body when stirred in off the heat.
Potatoes
Adds starchy bulk to the filling, holding its shape after parboiling.
Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the filling and the sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolk in off the heat. Egg yolk thickens and can scramble when it meets very hot liquid. Removing the sauce from heat before stirring in the yolk keeps it smooth and creamy.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, onion, parsley, potato, ham, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, onion, parsley, potato, ham, celery. 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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