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Chicken Quenelles

Chicken quenelles are tender chicken dumplings cooked in a creamy sauce and served with a light sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 Quenelles

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Use the breast and tender parts of the chicken; remove the skin and sinews.

  2. Pass the meat through a mincing machine.

Make the panada

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Cook the flour in the melted butter for a short time.

  3. Stir in the milk and boil until it forms a creamy thick sauce.

  4. Allow the sauce to cool, then pound it in a mortar with the eggs and chicken.

  5. Pass the mixture through a wire sieve using a wooden spoon.

Shape and cook

  1. Form quenelles using a dessert spoon, shaping them with a knife dipped in hot water.

  2. Drop the quenelles carefully into a greased frying pan.

  3. Cover with simmering water and cook gently for 5 to 6 minutes.

  4. Drain and serve in a circle with a little plain sauce over.

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 + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

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

Butter and flour 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 protein that sets into the light, firm body of the quenelle.
Egg
Binds the mixture and helps it set firmly when cooked in water.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the mixture.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a panada that gives the quenelles body and keeps them moist.
Milk
Forms with the flour a creamy sauce that adds moisture and softness.

The step that matters

Pass the mixture through a wire sieve. Sieving breaks down any remaining fibres and lumps so the mixture is smooth and fine-textured. Lumps or sinew left in will make the quenelles coarse and less delicate when they set.

“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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