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Chicken, to Fricassee

A chicken fricassee made with a whole chicken, butter, mushrooms, and simmered in its own broth.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken, to Fricassee

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Clean and sear the chicken until the flesh is firm.

  2. Carve the chicken into 10 pieces: divide the legs into 4 pieces and the back into 2.

  3. Wash all parts thoroughly in lukewarm water until the blood is removed.

Cook

  1. Place the chicken pieces in boiling water for 10 minutes, then remove and save the water.

  2. Transfer the chicken pieces to cold water until cool.

  3. Melt the butter in a stewpan and add the mushrooms.

  4. Cook until 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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

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

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 body of the fricassee, becoming firm when seared and poached.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, carrying flavour through the mushrooms and dish.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a tender, savoury texture to the dish.

The step that matters

Searing the chicken until the flesh is firm. Searing firms the surface proteins and sets the meat's structure before poaching, so the pieces hold their shape rather than falling apart in the water.

“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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