Why it works: Chicken and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓
Chicken Pie
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the chicken
Cut up the chickens.
Place the chicken pieces in a pot of hot water to cover. Add more water as it boils away.
Boil the chickens until tender.
Assemble the pie
Line the sides of a 4 or 6 quart pan with ½ inch thick biscuit dough.
Add part of the chicken, season with salt, pepper, and butter.
Layer in a few strips or squares of biscuit dough.
Add the remaining chicken and season again.
If desired, add eggs or new potatoes.
Season the boiling liquid with butter, salt, and pepper.
Add some of the seasoned liquid to the pie.
Cover with another layer of dough, ½ inch thick, with a hole in the center the size of a teacup.
Keep adding chicken broth as needed to prevent the pie from being dry.
Bake
Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
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.
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Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,756 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
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Pepper + potatotop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Biscuit + potatotop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together137 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together841 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provide the meat that forms the filling and becomes tender through boiling.
- Biscuit dough
- Forms the crust that lines the pan and cooks into a structure holding the filling.
- Eggs
- Optional addition that sets and adds richness to the filling when baked.
- New potatoes
- Optional addition that adds starch and body to the filling.
The step that matters
Keep adding chicken broth as needed. Without enough liquid the filling can dry out in the oven, since the dough absorbs moisture and the meat loses juices as it bakes. Adding seasoned broth keeps the filling moist.
Swap the potato
The recipe marks potato as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, butter, biscuit, egg):
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Spinachfits about as well
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, biscuit, 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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