Why it works: Chicken and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,958 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓
Pressed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Cook and debone
Boil the chicken in 2 cups of water until the meat separates from the bones.
Remove all bones and skin from the chicken.
Season and add liquid
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Add the cooking liquid to the chicken.
Press and slice
Place the mixture in a mold and weigh it down.
Set aside to cool.
Cut into slices.
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.
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Supplies the meat that is pressed into a firm block that holds together when sliced.
- Water
- Cooks the chicken and forms the moist cooking liquid that is returned to the meat.
The step that matters
Place the mixture in a mold and weigh it down.. Pressing the chicken while it cools compacts the meat and lets the cooking liquid set around the pieces, so the slices hold together instead of crumbling.
“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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