Why it works: Bread and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 22,662 recipes. Both carry (e)-2-octenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Fried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut the chicken into ten pieces.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt.
Roll in fine bread crumbs.
Dip in the beaten eggs mixed with water.
Roll again in bread crumbs.
Fry and serve
Fry in hot fat until a piece of bread browns in one minute.
Cook the chicken for about ten minutes.
Serve with sauce tartare or cream sauce, garnished with parsley.
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.
-
Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
-
Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,258 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).
-
Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,964 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
-
Chicken + eggtop 30% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,991 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Forms the main body of the dish, cooked through by frying in hot fat.
- Fine bread crumbs
- Form a crisp, browned coating that protects the chicken during frying.
- Eggs
- Bind the bread crumbs to the chicken so the coating adheres evenly.
The step that matters
Frying in hot fat. If the fat is not hot enough, the coating absorbs oil and turns greasy instead of crisp. The record's test is a piece of bread browning in one minute, which signals the right frying temperature.
“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.
More fried chicken recipes
You might also like
Brown Bread461 recipes
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.