Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
To Braise Chickens
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Remove feathers from the chickens and fill them with forcemeat.
Lay the poultry trimmings and onions in a stew-pan.
Place the chickens on top of the trimmings and onions.
Braise
Add the herbs, mace, stock, and sherry to the stew-pan.
Cover the chickens with bacon slices and white paper.
Tightly cover the stew-pan.
Cook on low heat for 2 hours.
Brown and glaze
Place the chickens in an oven at 350°F (175°C) for a few minutes to brown.
Remove the chickens from the stew-pan.
Strain the braise, skimming off the fat.
Boil the braise quickly until it thickens to a glaze.
Brush the glaze over the chickens.
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.
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together891 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Mace + sherrytop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,046 recipes
Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
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Onion + macetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,078 recipes
Shared aroma: eugenol (clove, spicy).
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Onion + sherrytop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,352 recipes
Shared aroma: acetal (cream, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chickens
- Provide the main body of meat, which becomes tender through slow, moist cooking.
- Forcemeat
- Stuffing that adds moisture and richness to the inside of the birds as they cook.
- Stock
- Forms the braising liquid that keeps the chicken moist and carries flavour.
- Bacon
- Lies over the birds, adding fat and smoky savour that bastes the meat as it cooks.
- Sherry
- Adds acidity and aroma to the braise, and reduces into the glaze.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and aromatic flavour to the braising liquid as they soften.
The step that matters
Boil the braise quickly until it thickens to a glaze. The braise must reduce to a concentrated glaze without scorching. Rapid boiling evaporates water and concentrates proteins and gelatin, so the glaze sets and clings to the chicken. Too little reduction leaves it thin; too long can burn the sugars and sherry.
Swap the mace
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, sherry):
- Garlicfits better
- Thymefits better
- Celeryfits better
- Macethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, sherry. 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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