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Deviled Chicken

A baked chicken dish with bread crumbs, cream, eggs, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Deviled Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Melt butter in a frying pan.

  2. Add bread crumbs, chicken, and seasonings; stir until it boils.

  3. Mix in finely chopped hard boiled eggs.

Bake and serve

  1. Fill paper cases or individual dishes with the mixture.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

  5. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chopped chicken
Forms the main body of the filling, giving it substance and bulk.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the filling soft and creamy.
Bread crumbs
Soak up liquid to thicken the mixture and form a golden crust on top.
Hard boiled eggs
Add body and a firm, slightly crumbly texture to the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring the chicken, crumbs and seasonings until it boils. Heating the mixture until it boils lets the bread crumbs absorb liquid and thicken it. If it is not heated enough, the filling stays loose and may run when spooned into cases.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Parsleythe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

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