Skip to main content
Main

Steamed Chicken

A whole chicken and potatoes are seasoned, layered, and steamed in an oven.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Steamed Chicken

Why it works: Butter and bread 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 ↓

Steamed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Prepare the chicken and potatoes, slicing the potatoes.

  2. Layer the chicken and potatoes in a stone crock.

Season and cover

  1. Season each layer with coarse sea salt, black pepper, and a little butter.

  2. Cover the layers with water.

  3. Top with bread slices or a pie crust if desired.

Cook

  1. Cook in a 300°F (150°C) oven for three hours.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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

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

  2. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

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

  4. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in moisture.
Potatoes
Absorb cooking juices and turn soft, adding starch and body to the dish.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor across the layers as it melts.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Potatothe original
  4. Onionfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, bread. 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.

More steamed chicken recipes

Fillet 4with Oysters 4Dressing 3 See all 32 →

You might also like

Brown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesChicken BrothChicken Broth257 recipesPotato CroquettesPotato Croquettes255 recipesChicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipes