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Pressed Chicken

A dish of shredded chicken pressed into a mold with broth and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Pressed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken until the meat falls off the bones.

  2. Remove the chicken from the pot and shred it finely.

Season and combine

  1. Season the shredded chicken with pepper, salt, and butter.

  2. Let the remaining broth boil down to about ½ cup.

  3. Pour the broth over the chicken and stir to combine.

Mold and set

  1. Dip a mold in cold water and fill it with the chicken mixture.

  2. Press down and let it stand overnight.

  3. Serve with Saratoga potatoes.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the bulk and structure of the dish, becoming firm and sliceable once pressed and chilled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, coating the shredded meat and softening its texture.
Chicken broth
Reduced to a concentrate that moistens the meat and helps the mixture hold its shape as it sets.

The step that matters

Pressing the mold and letting it stand overnight. Firm pressing removes air pockets and packs the shredded meat together, so the cut surfaces hold together. Standing overnight lets the gelatin from the reduced broth and bones cool and set, giving the dish its firm texture.

“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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