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Chicken Saute

A dish of breaded chicken served on toast with white sauce and cauliflower.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and cauliflower are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,113 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Remove the bones from the cold boiled chicken.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  3. Roll the chicken in bread crumbs, then dip in beaten egg, and roll in crumbs again.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry the chicken in hot cooking oil until golden brown.

  2. Serve on toast with a border of hot white sauce and small florets of boiled cauliflower.

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 + cauliflowertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,113 recipes

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

  2. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  4. Bread + cauliflowertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together223 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns and protects the chicken while frying.
Egg
Binds the bread crumbs to the chicken so the coating adheres during frying.
White sauce
Adds moisture and richness that contrasts with the crisp fried chicken.
Cottolene
Conducts heat for frying, browning the coating and adding richness.

The step that matters

Fry the chicken in hot cooking oil until golden brown. If the oil is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisping. Oil that is too hot browns the crumbs before the chicken is heated through, so the chicken should be fried at a steady heat until the coating is golden.

Swap the cauliflower

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Cauliflowerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, bread, egg, sauce. 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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