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Plain Chicken Pie

A savory pie filled with chicken, giblets, mushrooms, and gravy, topped with pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Plain Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken and gravy

  1. Remove the neck, feet, and scaly parts of the legs from the chicken, along with the heart, liver, and gizzard.

  2. Combine the giblets, mushrooms, shallot, gravy beef, salt, and peppercorns with water in a saucepan.

  3. Stew the mixture for 1 hour.

Assemble the pie

  1. Prepare the pastry crust.

  2. Line the dish with the pastry, leaving some for the top.

  3. Layer bacon or ham at the bottom of the dish.

  4. Place the chicken back pieces on the bacon, sprinkle with parsley, lemon peel, and bread crumbs.

  5. Add the whole breast in the center, a leg at each end, and wings on the sides.

  6. Fill corners with small rolls of ham or bacon.

  7. Pour the giblet gravy over the chicken.

  8. Cover with pastry.

  9. Make a small hole in the top of the pastry.

Bake

  1. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 1 hour.

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

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

  2. Shallot + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + beeftop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,148 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main meat, which becomes tender during the long stew and bake.
Gravy beef
Adds savory depth and body to the giblet gravy as it stews.
Pastry
Forms a sealed crust that holds in steam and keeps the filling moist.
Bacon or ham
Adds salty, savory fat that flavors the filling and the layers around the chicken.
Mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavor and moisture to the giblet gravy.

The step that matters

Stew the giblet mixture for the full hour. Simmering gently breaks down connective tissue in the meat and gravy beef and extracts flavor into the liquid. Stopping early leaves tough meat and a thin, weak gravy to pour over the chicken.

“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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