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Deviled Chicken

A savory dish of chopped chicken, eggs, and cream baked with butter, breadcrumbs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Deviled Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a pan.

  2. Add the bread crumbs, chicken, and cream and stir until heated.

  3. Press the yolks and whites of the hard boiled eggs through a sieve, then add the egg mixture to the pan.

  4. Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper.

  5. Remove from heat.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to shells or individual souffle dishes.

  2. Cover with greased bread crumbs.

  3. Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven.

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 + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  5. Parsley + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the filling and provides the savory, meaty base.
Eggs
Pressed through a sieve, they add richness and thicken the filling as they set.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, helping the filling feel rich and smooth.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness so the chicken stays soft rather than dry.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and give the filling body, and brown on top when baked.

The step that matters

Brown in a 400°F (200°C) oven. The top needs enough heat to brown the greased crumbs without drying the filling underneath. Too little heat leaves it pale, while overbaking can dry out the chicken and egg.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parsley, butter, bread, cream, egg, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parsley, butter, bread, cream, egg, 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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