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To Braise Chickens

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Bone the chickens and fill them with forcemeat.

  3. Place the bones and poultry trimmings in a stewpan, then lay the chickens on top.

Braise

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

  2. Cover with bacon slices and white paper, then cover the stewpan tightly.

  3. Cook on a slow stove for 2 hours.

  4. Remove the chickens, strain the braise, and skim off the fat.

Glaze and serve

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

  2. Brush the glaze over the chickens and place them in the oven for a few minutes to 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
Provide the main meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist braising.
Forcemeat
Adds a stuffed, rich filling that stays moist as the chicken cooks.
Stock
Forms the braising liquid that gently cooks the chicken and later reduces to a glaze.
Sherry
Adds acidity and aromatic depth to the braising liquid and glaze.
Bacon
Adds savoury fat that bastes the chicken during the long covered braise.
Onions
Contribute sweetness and body to the braising liquid as they soften.

The step that matters

Boil the braise quickly until it thickens to a glaze. Rapid boiling reduces the liquid and concentrates its proteins and sugars, so it sets into a glossy glaze rather than staying thin. If it is boiled too gently or for too long, it may not thicken or may scorch.

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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