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Fricasseed Chicken

A stew of chicken pieces simmered in water, then finished with a cream and Port wine gravy.

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 chickens in a pot and stew them in a little water until tender.

  2. Remove the chickens, cut them into pieces, and return them to half the water they were boiled in.

  3. Add black pepper and coarse sea salt, then let them stew until fully cooked.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Prepare a gravy by combining cream, Port wine, butter, salt, black pepper, and red pepper in a saucepan.

  2. Take the chicken from the pot and place it on a platter, then 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

Chickens
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender as the meat slowly simmers.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, thickened body to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and a rich flavor to the gravy.
Port wine
Adds sweetness and depth of flavor to the gravy.

The step that matters

Stewing the chicken until fully cooked. Chicken must be cooked through for safety, but simmering too hard can toughen the meat. Gentle, steady stewing keeps it tender while ensuring it is done.

“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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