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Chicken Pie

A savory pie filled with stewed chicken and gravy, topped with a buttery crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Fry the pork in a kettle until crisp, then remove it.

  2. Add the chicken to the kettle, cover with hot water, and stew until tender.

  3. Remove the chicken and let it cool, saving the broth for gravy.

Make the gravy

  1. In a small kettle, melt the butter, then stir in the flour until smooth but not brown.

  2. Gradually add the broth and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Beat the egg with cold water and mix it into the gravy.

Assemble and bake

  1. Make a crust by combining flour, shortening, baking powder, salt, egg white, and enough water to form a dough.

  2. Line a pie plate with the crust, remove the meat from the bones, and fill the plate with the chicken.

  3. Pour some gravy over the chicken, add bits of butter, and season to taste.

  4. Bake until the crust is golden brown.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pork + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour 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

Flour
Flour thickens the butter into a roux, giving the gravy body without lumps when stirred smooth.
Butter
Butter enriches the gravy and roux, adding richness and a smooth, rounded flavour.
Shortening
Shortening keeps the crust tender and flaky by coating flour particles and limiting gluten formation.
Baking powder
Baking powder releases gas in the crust, helping it rise and turn light.
Egg
The beaten egg enriches the gravy, adding richness and helping it set slightly.
Chicken
Chicken is the main filling, providing savoury meat that becomes tender from stewing.

The step that matters

Stir the flour into the butter until smooth but not brown. Cooking the flour in butter forms a roux that thickens the broth evenly. If it browns too far, it loses thickening power and gives an off colour and flavour, while lumps form if the broth is added too quickly or the mixture isn't stirred smooth.

“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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