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Fricassee of Chicken

A creamy chicken stew with carrots, onions, herbs, and a velvety sauce thickened with flour and finished with egg yolks.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,053 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. In a pot, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped carrot, onion, parsley, bay leaf, and mace; sauté until softened.

  3. Stir in the flour if using, and cook for 1 minute.

  4. Pour in the stock or milk, stirring constantly until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the chicken pieces and simmer for 10 minutes.

  2. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, cream, and lemon juice.

  3. Remove the pot from heat and stir in the egg mixture until combined.

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. Carrot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Carrot + oniontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Adds richness and flavour to the sauce base as it melts and softens the vegetables.
Flour
Thickens the stock or milk into a smooth sauce when cooked briefly with the butter.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce and add richness when gently stirred in off the heat.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the sauce, softening its texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg mixture off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if the sauce is too hot. Removing the pot from the heat before adding them lets the yolks thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, milk, carrot, onion, parsley, butter, flour):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Celeryfits better
  3. Marjoramfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, milk, carrot, onion, parsley, butter, flour. 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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