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Fricassee of Spring Chickens, K LA Bourguignonne

A French-style chicken fricassee with butter, onions, carrots, broth, wine, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 Spring Chickens, K LA Bourguignonne

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 braise

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

  2. Add the chopped onion and sliced carrots; sauté until softened.

  3. Add the chicken pieces and brown on all sides.

  4. Sprinkle flour over the chicken and stir to coat.

  5. Pour in the chicken broth and white wine; season with salt and pepper.

  6. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Serve

  1. Garnish with fresh parsley before serving.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

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

  4. Onion + carrottop 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

Spring chickens
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender as it simmers in the liquid.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the onion and carrots soften and the chicken brown.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a light sauce as it combines with the fat and broth.
White wine
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Chicken broth
Supplies the liquid that gently cooks the chicken and forms the base of the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken on all sides. Browning creates flavorful Maillard compounds on the surface. Pale chicken added to the pot will taste flat and stew rather than braise well.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, carrot, white wine, flour, pepper, parsley. 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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