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Chickens, a LA Reine

A stew of small spring chickens cooked with lemon, butter, parsley, carrot, onion, cloves, and stock, served with Supreme sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and carrot 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 ↓

Chickens, a LA Reine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Truss the chickens.

  2. Rub them with lemon juice.

  3. Wrap each chicken in a sheet of buttered paper.

Poach

  1. Place the chickens in a stewpan with parsley, carrot, onion, and cloves.

  2. Moisten with boiling stock to nearly cover the chickens.

  3. Boil gently for about 40 minutes until done.

Finish and serve

  1. Drain the chickens on a napkin.

  2. Remove the paper and string.

  3. Dish the chickens side by side.

  4. Cover with Supreme sauce.

  5. Garnish with small quenelles of fowl.

  6. Serve.

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 + carrottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,053 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

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

  5. Parsley + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,768 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Spring chickens
Provide the tender meat that is the main body of the dish.
Butter
Enriches the wrapping paper so the skin stays moist and tender during cooking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the chicken.
Boiling stock
Gently cooks the chickens while adding savoury flavour and moisture.
Onion
Contributes aromatic flavour to the poaching liquid.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and aroma to the poaching liquid.

The step that matters

Boil gently for about 40 minutes until done. A gentle simmer cooks the chicken evenly and keeps the meat tender. A hard boil toughens the proteins and can break the delicate skin and shape of the birds.

Swap the clove

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

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

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