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 ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Parboil the chicken pieces if they are a year old.
Strip the meat from the legs and spread out the pieces for even frying.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper.
Dredge the seasoned chicken pieces in flour.
Fry
Fry the chicken in hot lard until golden brown.
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).
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Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + flourtop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,559 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
Chicken and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,559 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 meat that is cooked through by frying in the crust.
- Flour
- Forms a dry coating that crisps and browns in the hot fat.
- Lard
- Conducts heat to cook the chicken and gives the crust its golden colour and rich flavour.
The step that matters
Fry the chicken in hot lard until golden brown. If the lard is too cool, the coating absorbs fat and turns greasy and soggy. If it is too hot, the outside browns and burns before the meat near the bone cooks through. Keep the fat steadily hot and turn the pieces as they colour.
“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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