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Fried Chicken

Fried chicken pieces coated in flour, egg, and cracker crumbs, pan‑fried and served with a cream gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Wash the chicken.

  2. Cut up the chicken and wipe it dry.

  3. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

Coat and fry

  1. Dredge each piece in flour.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten egg.

  3. Coat each piece in cracker crumbs.

  4. Heat the butter and lard in a frying pan until boiling hot.

  5. Add the chicken to the pan.

  6. Fry until brown on both sides.

  7. Remove the chicken from the pan.

  8. Drain the chicken.

  9. Keep the chicken warm in a covered dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Stir flour into the remaining gravy.

  2. Make the gravy smooth.

  3. Add cream or milk to the gravy.

  4. Season the gravy with salt and pepper.

  5. Bring the gravy to a boil.

  6. Pour the gravy over the chicken.

  7. Serve hot.

Cook the older chicken

  1. Simmer the older chicken in a little water until tender.

  2. Season the older chicken.

  3. Dredge the older chicken as above.

  4. Fry the older chicken as above.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

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

Chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, cooked until tender inside and browned outside.
Flour
Dries the surface and gives the egg and crumb coating something to cling to, then thickens the gravy.
Eggs
Act as a binder that helps the cracker crumbs stick to each piece of chicken.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Butter and lard
Provide the frying fat that browns the coating and adds rich flavor.
Cream or milk
Adds liquid and richness, giving the gravy a smooth, creamy body.

The step that matters

Fry in fully heated fat. The butter and lard must be boiling hot before the chicken goes in. Hot fat sets and browns the coating quickly, so it crisps and seals instead of soaking up grease and turning heavy.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, egg, butter, cream):

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

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