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Chickens, a LA Dauphine

A roasted chicken stuffed with fowl mixture, bacon, and herbs, simmered with mirepoix.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Chickens, a LA Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Draw and clean the chickens, leaving the legs and wings intact.

  2. Fill the cavity with the quenelle mixture of fowl, mushrooms, and parsley.

  3. Truss the chickens to maintain their shape.

  4. Rub the chickens with lemon juice.

  5. Cover the breasts with bacon.

  6. Wrap in buttered paper.

Braise

  1. Place in a stewpan with carrot, onion, and bouquet garni.

  2. Moisten with light mirepoix.

  3. Simmer gently for 45 minutes.

  4. Drain.

Serve

  1. Remove the string.

  2. Serve with the braising sauce.

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. Parsley + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Spring chickens
Provide the main protein, which turns tender and moist during gentle braising.
Quenelle of fowl
Forms a light, delicate stuffing that cooks into a soft, cohesive filling.
Fat bacon
Lays fat over the breasts, basting the lean meat and keeping it moist as it cooks.
Mushrooms
Add savory, earthy flavour to the stuffing.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich chicken.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for 45 minutes. Gentle simmering keeps the liquid below a hard boil, so the chicken cooks evenly and stays tender rather than tightening and drying out.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, parsley, carrot, onion):

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, parsley, carrot, onion. 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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