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To Braise Chickens

A braised chicken dish cooked with forcemeat, onions, herbs, mace, stock, sherry, and bacon, finished with a glaze and served with mushroom fricassee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

To Braise Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Bone the chickens and fill the chickens with forcemeat.

  2. Lay the bones and poultry trimmings in a stewpan.

  3. Place the chickens on top of the bones and trimmings.

  4. Add onions, herbs, mace, stock, and sherry.

  5. Cover the chickens with bacon slices, then with white paper.

  6. Seal the pot tightly.

Braise

  1. Cook on a low heat for 2 hours.

  2. Remove the chickens from the pot.

  3. Strain the braise.

  4. Skim off the fat from the braise.

  5. Boil the braise quickly until it thickens to a glaze.

Glaze and serve

  1. Brush the glaze over the chickens.

  2. Briefly place the chickens in the oven for color.

  3. Serve with a brown fricassee of mushrooms.

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

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

  2. Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together891 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Mace + sherrytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Onion + macetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,078 recipes

    Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).

  5. Onion + sherrytop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,352 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetal (cream, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens
Forcemeat-filled birds that hold their shape and stay moist during slow braising.
Forcemeat
Adds richness and a tender, moist texture to the boned chickens as they cook.
Poultry trimmings
Release gelatin and flavor into the braise, giving the stock body for the glaze.
Onions
Add savory sweetness and aroma to the braising liquid as they soften.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid.
Bacon
Adds fat and smoky savor that bastes the chickens while they braise.

The step that matters

Boil the braise quickly until it thickens to a glaze. Rapid boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates its gelatin and flavor. If it is reduced too slowly or too little, the glaze stays thin and will not coat the chickens.

Swap the mace

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, sherry. 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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