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Chickens, a LA Dauphine

A French chicken dish braised with bacon, mushrooms, and mirepoix.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Dauphine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chickens

  1. Draw and bone the chickens, leaving the legs and wings intact.

  2. Fill the void with a quenelle of fowl mixed with chopped mushrooms and parsley.

  3. Truss the chickens to maintain their shape.

  4. Rub the chickens with lemon juice.

  5. Cover the breasts with fat bacon.

  6. Wrap the chickens in buttered paper.

Braise and serve

  1. Place the wrapped chickens in a stewpan with carrot, onion, and a garnished faggot.

  2. Moisten with light mirepoix.

  3. Simmer gently for about 45 minutes.

  4. Drain the chickens.

  5. Remove the string.

  6. Serve with the clarified essence they were braised in.

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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Quenelle of fowl
Forms a light, tender stuffing that fills the boned cavity and keeps the bird moist.
Fat bacon
Lies over the breasts, basting them with fat so they stay moist during gentle cooking.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the chicken.
Chopped mushrooms
Add earthy savoury flavour and moisture to the stuffing.
Spring chickens
Provide tender meat that becomes succulent when gently braised.

The step that matters

Simmer gently for about 45 minutes. A gentle simmer cooks the chicken through while keeping the meat tender and juicy. A hard boil toughens the proteins and dries the flesh, and the stuffing can become dense or uneven if the heat is too high.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Avocadofits about as well
  2. Limefits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, 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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