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Chicken and Macaroni a LA Milanaise

A baked chicken served with macaroni cooked in its broth and topped with Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 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 and Macaroni a LA Milanaise

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.

Cook the chicken and broth

  1. Boil the chicken in salted water until cooked through, then carve it into eleven pieces.

  2. Arrange the chicken pieces on a fire-proof platter with white meat at one end and dark meat at the other.

Make the macaroni

  1. In the same pot, boil the macaroni or spaghetti in the chicken broth until tender but not breaking.

  2. Boil the onion in the broth while cooking the macaroni, then remove it.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover the chicken completely with the cooked macaroni, sift Parmesan cheese over the top.

  2. Place the platter in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned, then 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. Chicken + parmesan cheesetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,846 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Onion + parmesan cheesetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,717 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 and flavors the broth that cooks the pasta.
Pipe macaroni or spaghetti
Forms the starchy base that covers the chicken and holds the sauce-like broth.
Parmesan cheese
Melts and browns on top in the oven, adding savory flavor and a golden crust.

The step that matters

Cooking the macaroni in the broth until tender but not breaking. Pasta cooked too long in liquid turns soft and falls apart, while undercooked pasta stays firm. Cooking it directly in the broth lets it absorb flavor, so timing it to just tender keeps its shape under the chicken.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parmesan cheese):

  1. Tomatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits about as well
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parmesan cheese. 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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