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Chicken Pot-pie

A chicken pot pie with dumplings, potatoes, and gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Pot-pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and dough

  1. Place the cut chicken in a pot and cover with water. Ensure it does not cook dry.

  2. While boiling, take a slice of bread dough and mix in a small lump of lard.

  3. Knead until like light biscuit dough.

  4. Roll out the dough and cut into shapes.

  5. Let rise by the stove.

Cook the chicken and potatoes

  1. When the chicken is almost done, add the peeled potatoes and season them with salt and pepper.

  2. Add the dumplings and season again.

  3. Ensure there is enough water to prevent burning.

Cook the dumplings

  1. Cover tightly and do not remove the lid until the dumplings are cooked.

  2. Cook the dumplings for about 30 minutes.

  3. Test one by lifting the lid and breaking it open.

  4. Alternatively, place dumplings in a steamer over cold water. Ensure some holes are left open for steam.

  5. If there are too many dumplings, attach them to the side of the steamer with wet dough.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. To make gravy, mix 2 tablespoons flour with a little butter, then stir into the remaining broth.

  2. Add boiling water if needed and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Once done, transfer the dumplings to a vegetable dish and pour hot gravy over them.

  4. Serve potatoes separately and chicken with dumplings together.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Potato + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the dumpling dough and add structure as they set.
Flour
Forms the stiff dough and thickens the gravy.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to the dumpling dough.
Baking soda
Reacts to lighten the dumplings as they cook.
Lard
Adds fat for a tender, flaky texture in the dough.

The step that matters

Keep the lid on and the water topped up. Lifting the lid lets steam escape and cools the pot, so dumplings can turn heavy and undercooked. Too little water can scorch the pot before the dumplings set.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Leekfits about as well

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