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Chicken, Fricasseed

A stew of chicken pieces browned in lard, simmered with water and onion, finished with egg yolks and whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken, Fricasseed

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Separate the wings, legs, and breasts of the chickens and soak them in saltwater for 1-2 hours.

  2. Let the pieces rest with a little salt for 24 hours before cooking.

  3. Wash the chicken pieces.

  4. Dust the chicken pieces with flour and sprinkle with salt.

Cook the chicken

  1. Heat the lard in a 400°F (200°C) oven and fry the chicken until browned.

  2. Add the water, cover, and let the chicken stew.

  3. About 20 minutes before done, add the chopped onion to the gravy.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Mix the egg yolks into a batter and stir into the gravy, seasoning with black pepper.

  2. Place the cooked chicken in a dish.

  3. Stir in the beaten egg whites; this will cook quickly.

  4. Pour the gravy over the chicken and serve.

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. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Egg + flourtop 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. Onion + flourtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together32,460 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Chickens
Provide the meat that is browned and then stewed until tender.
Lard
Fat for frying that browns the flour-dusted chicken pieces.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the gravy as they set with gentle heat.
Egg whites
Add lightness and body to the gravy as they cook quickly.
Flour
Dusted on the chicken to help it brown and thicken the gravy.

The step that matters

Stirring in the egg yolk batter. Egg yolks thicken when heated gently but can curdle or turn grainy if the gravy is too hot or boiling. Stir steadily and keep the heat moderate so the gravy becomes smooth.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, pepper, flour):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Spinachfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, pepper, flour. 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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