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Chicken with Dumplings

A stew of chicken pieces simmered with a creamy dumpling mixture.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken with Dumplings

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken

  1. Cut the chicken into pieces and place in a pot with enough water to cover it.

  2. Add parsley, salt, onion, and cayenne pepper.

  3. Boil until tender.

  4. Once tender, stir in cream, butter, and 1 tablespoon of flour.

Add the dumplings

  1. In a separate bowl, mix milk, egg, baking powder, remaining flour, and a little salt and pepper to make the dumplings.

  2. Drop spoonfuls of the dumpling mixture into the pot with the chicken.

  3. Cook for an additional 30 minutes.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the dish, becoming tender as it simmers.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid and gives the dumplings structure as they set.
Egg
Binds the dumpling mixture and helps it hold its shape while cooking.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dumpling batter, making them light and puffed rather than dense.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the cooking liquid.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and flavor in the sauce.

The step that matters

Drop spoonfuls of the dumpling mixture into the pot with the chicken. Dumplings must cook while the liquid is simmering, not at a hard boil, or they can break apart. They need to stay covered and undisturbed so the steam sets them through and they cook evenly.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Cinnamonfits about as well

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