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Chicken a LA Marengo

Chicken à la Marengo is a stew of chicken joints simmered with tomato, onion, stock, herbs, and mushrooms, finished with a butter‑flour sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken a LA Marengo

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chicken into joints and remove the skin.

  2. Heat the salad oil in a pan and fry the chicken quickly.

Make the stew

  1. Transfer the chicken to a stew pan with the tomato, onion, stock, and herbs.

  2. Simmer gently for about 1 hour, then strain the mixture.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a pan, add the flour, and gradually stir in the strained stock.

  2. Cook the sauce well, then add the mushrooms and chicken joints.

  3. Cook for about 10 minutes, season with salt and pepper, and serve on fried bread garnished with croutons.

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

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

  2. Tomato + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,719 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  5. Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein; braising in stock keeps the joints tender and flavourful.
Flour
Thickens the butter and stock into a smooth, lightly bodied sauce.
Butter
Adds richness and fat to the flour roux that forms the base of the sauce.
Brown stock
Forms the liquid base of the stew and, once strained, the body of the sauce.
Tomato
Adds acidity and a fresh, savoury sweetness to the stew.
Button mushrooms
Contribute earthy flavour and a tender texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the sauce well after adding the stock. Flour must cook long enough in the butter and stock to lose its raw, pasty taste and to thicken fully. Stirring in the stock gradually prevents lumps from forming.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, tomato, mushroom, butter, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, tomato, mushroom, butter, pepper. 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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