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Fried Chicken

Pieces of young chicken are baked, coated with flour or breadcrumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Bread and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare

  1. Cut the young chickens into small pieces.

  2. Place the pieces in a pan with a few tablespoons of water and cover it tightly.

  3. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for a short time.

  4. Remove the chicken from the oven.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the pieces in flour.

  2. Alternatively, dip the pieces in beaten eggs.

  3. Coat the pieces with bread crumbs or powdered crackers.

  4. Fry the coated chicken in butter or hot pork gravy until golden brown.

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  4. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Young chickens
Provide the meat that is cooked and served as the main dish.
Flour
Forms a dry first coating that helps the crumb layer adhere to the chicken.
Eggs
Act as a binding liquid that helps the crumbs or crackers stick to the chicken.
Bread crumbs or powdered crackers
Form a crisp, browned outer crust when fried.
Butter or hot pork gravy
Carries heat into the coating and adds fat and flavor for browning.

The step that matters

Fry the coated chicken until golden brown. Frying at a steady heat browns the crumb coating while the chicken cooks through. Too low a heat lets the coating soak up fat and turn greasy, while too high a heat can scorch the outside before the inside is cooked.

“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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