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Chicken Pie

A savory pie made with stewed chicken, gravy, and a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the chicken and gravy

  1. Cut up the chickens and stew them in water until nearly done.

  2. Remove the chicken and season the broth with pepper and salt.

  3. Thicken the broth with flour mixed in butter and the egg yolk.

Make the crust

  1. For the crust, mix flour, butter, baking powder, and salt.

  2. Add water to form a dough that doesn't stick.

  3. Keep the crust ingredients cool and line the sides of a deep pudding dish with the pastry.

Assemble and bake

  1. Place the chicken pieces in the dish, seasoning with salt and pepper.

  2. Pour the gravy over the chicken and cover with a thick crust.

  3. Cut a small opening in the center for steam to escape and pinch the edges to seal.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 40 to 45 minutes.

  5. Reserve some gravy to serve on the side.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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 and flavour, gently cooked in water to make the broth.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the crust and enriches the thickened gravy.
All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the crust and thickens the broth into gravy.
Egg yolk
Enriches the gravy, adding richness and helping it thicken smoothly.
Baking powder
Lifts the crust slightly as it bakes, giving it a lighter texture.

The step that matters

Keep the crust ingredients cool. Cold fat stays in small pieces within the dough, and as it melts in the oven it creates flaky layers. Warm butter blends into the flour, making the crust tougher and less tender.

“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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