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Chicken Pie

A baked pie filled with boiled chicken, seasoned with salt, pepper, flour, butter, and chicken broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

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.

Prepare the crust

  1. Prepare the crust like a baking powder biscuit, but slightly shorter.

  2. Roll the crust to ½ inch thick.

  3. Line a deep pudding dish with the rolled crust.

Fill the pie

  1. Place the pieces of boiled chicken smoothly in the pan.

  2. Sprinkle salt, pepper, and flour over the chicken.

  3. Add small pieces of butter, about 2 tablespoons in total.

  4. Pour a little of the liquor from the boiled chickens over the top.

Top and bake

  1. Roll the top crust to more than ½ inch thick.

  2. Cut large stars or air holes in the top crust.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is thoroughly done.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Pepper + flourtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together50,459 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

Flour and butter 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

Chickens
Provide the main filling, already tender from boiling.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the chicken juices into a sauce within the pie.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the filling and crust.
Baking powder
Lifts the crust so it bakes light rather than dense.

The step that matters

Bake until the crust is thoroughly done. A pie with a pale or doughy base is a common failure. The bottom crust needs enough time and heat to set and brown, while the filling is already cooked.

“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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