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Fried Chicken

Fried chicken pieces coated in flour, egg, and crumbs, then fried in butter or pork gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. 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. Cover the pan and bake at 400°F (200°C).

  3. Remove the chicken from the oven.

Coat and fry

  1. Roll the pieces in flour or dip them in beaten egg. Coat the pieces with bread or cracker crumbs.

  2. Fry the coated chicken in butter or hot pork gravy.

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 + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

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

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Bread + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  5. Butter + porktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,933 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
Provides the meat that is cooked and served.
Flour
Forms a dry base that helps the coating adhere to the chicken.
Beaten egg
Acts as a binder so the crumbs stick to the chicken pieces.
Bread crumbs or powdered cracker crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden outer crust when fried.
Butter
Adds fat for frying, promoting browning and rich flavor.

The step that matters

Fry the coated chicken in butter or hot pork gravy. The fat must be hot enough to crisp the coating quickly; if it is too cool, the crumbs absorb grease and turn soggy rather than golden.

“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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