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To Devil Chicken

A spicy chicken dish simmered in a mustard and walnut liquor sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

To Devil Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Strew the chicken parts with cayenne pepper and salt.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and add mustard, mushroom ketchup (or soy sauce), and walnut liquor.

  2. Heat the sauce until hot.

Cook and serve

  1. Broil the chicken parts until well cooked.

  2. Serve the chicken with the sauce poured over it.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Mustard + walnuttop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together849 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Pepper + mustardtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,430 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken parts
Provide the meat that is cooked and served with the sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the sauce, carrying its flavor and helping it coat the chicken.
Mustard
Adds sharp, pungent flavor that balances the richness of the butter.
Mushroom ketchup or soy sauce
Adds savory, umami depth to the sauce.
Cayenne pepper
Adds heat and spice that gives the chicken its devilled character.

The step that matters

Broil the chicken parts until well cooked. Broiling browns the surface quickly from intense top heat, so the outside can char before the inside cooks through. Cooking until well done ensures the chicken is safe to eat, and watching closely prevents burning.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, butter, mustard, mushroom):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Sesamefits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Walnutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, mustard, mushroom. 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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