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Chicken for Lunch

A baked dish of boiled eggs and chopped chicken set in a mold with chicken liquid, chilled, then unmolded and garnished.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 30% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,991 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken for Lunch

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Season and boil the chicken until very tender.

  2. Remove the bones and chop the chicken finely.

Layer and set

  1. In a mold, layer sliced boiled eggs and chopped chicken, starting with a layer of egg.

  2. Aim for about 1 cup of liquid from the chicken.

  3. Pour the liquid over the layers.

  4. Place a weight on top.

  5. Let it cool.

  6. Turn out from the mold.

  7. Garnish with greens.

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 + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,991 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body and protein of the casserole, becoming tender from long boiling.
Boiled eggs
Add firm, sliced layers and mild richness to the mold.
Chicken cooking liquid
Moistens the layers and, once cooled, helps the dish hold together as a set mass.

The step that matters

Let it cool under a weight. Chilling lets the liquid from the chicken gel and bind the layers, so the casserole holds its shape when turned out. Turning it out too early can cause it to crumble or slump.

“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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