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Fricasseed Chicken

A stew of chicken simmered in cream, port wine, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Place the chicken in a pot and cover with water.

  2. Stew until tender.

  3. Remove the chicken.

  4. Cut the chicken into pieces.

  5. Return the pieces to the pot with half the reserved cooking water.

  6. Season with salt and black pepper.

  7. Let stew until fully cooked.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Combine cream, port wine, butter, salt, black pepper, and red pepper to make the gravy.

  2. Place the chicken on a platter.

  3. Pour the hot gravy over it.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Port wine + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,499 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Pepper + port winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,804 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

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, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the gravy, giving it a smooth texture.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, helping the gravy taste rich and feel silky.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Pour the hot gravy over the chicken. The gravy should be kept hot when poured, since cream-based sauces can separate or thicken unevenly if they cool or are overheated. Serving it hot also keeps the chicken warm.

“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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