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Fricasseed Chickens

Chicken pieces braised in butter, onion, broth, flour, and cream, seasoned with salt and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fricasseed Chickens

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the chicken

  1. In a large skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Add the chopped onion and sauté until translucent.

  3. Add the chicken pieces and cook until browned on all sides.

Make the sauce

  1. Sprinkle flour over the chicken and stir to coat.

  2. Pour in the chicken broth and bring to a simmer.

  3. Reduce heat and stir in the heavy cream.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, and cook until chicken is tender.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

Butter and flour 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein and, when browned, builds savory flavor in the pan.
Butter
Adds fat for browning the chicken and carries flavor through the dish.
Onion
Softens as it cooks, adding sweetness and a base aroma to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce that clings to the chicken.
Chicken broth
Supplies the cooking liquid that the flour thickens and that keeps the chicken moist.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Coat the chicken evenly with flour. Flour spread over the pieces and stirred in cooks into the fat and later thickens the broth. Stirring it well keeps it from clumping when the liquid goes in.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits about as well
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

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