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Two Chickens À LA Reine

Two whole chickens roasted with butter, broth, cream, lemon, and parsley sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Two Chickens À LA Reine

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Season the chickens with salt and pepper.

  3. Melt butter over medium heat.

  4. Brown the chickens on all sides.

Roast

  1. Transfer the chickens to a roasting pan and pour the chicken broth over them.

  2. Roast in the oven for about 1 hour, basting occasionally.

  3. Remove the chickens and let them rest.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Add heavy cream and lemon juice to the skillet.

  2. Stir until thickened.

  3. Serve the chickens with the sauce and garnish with chopped parsley.

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. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Provide the main protein, which cooks through during roasting in the broth.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the chickens and a rich flavor to the pan.
Chicken broth
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the roasting pan, keeping the meat juicy.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and body, thickening into the sauce when stirred.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the rich cream sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the cream sauce until thickened. Cream thickens gradually as it reduces and its proteins set with gentle heat. Too little reduction leaves it thin, while boiling too hard or long can cause it to separate or turn grainy. Stir steadily and watch the texture closely.

“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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