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Fried Chicken

A fried chicken dish with a crumb coating and creamy gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Wash and cut up the chicken, then wipe it dry.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  3. Dredge the chicken in flour, then dip each piece in beaten egg and coat with cracker crumbs.

Fry

  1. In a frying pan, heat the butter and lard until hot.

  2. Fry the chicken until golden brown on both sides.

  3. Remove the chicken, drain, and set aside in a covered dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. In the same pan, stir 1 tablespoon of flour into the leftover drippings and make it smooth.

  2. Add the cream or milk, and season with salt and pepper.

  3. Bring the gravy to a boil, then pour it over the chicken and serve hot.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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
Provides the main protein; the bone-in pieces stay moist while the outside crisps during frying.
Flour
Dry coating that helps the egg and cracker crumbs stick and gives the crust a base for browning.
Egg
Binds the flour and cracker crumbs to the chicken so the coating holds during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form the crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Butter and lard
Fat for frying that conducts heat evenly and browns the coating and adds flavor.
Cream or milk
Adds liquid and richness to the gravy, giving it a smooth, creamy body.

The step that matters

Frying the chicken until golden brown on both sides. The fat must be hot enough to brown the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the crumbs absorb oil and turn greasy, and if too hot, the outside browns before the inside cooks through.

“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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