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Chicken Saute

A sautéed chicken dish with bacon, garlic, shallot, mushrooms, and a creamy lemon sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 Saute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Heat the oil in a small stewpan until boiling.

  2. Fry the cooked chicken pieces in the oil for about six minutes until browned.

Make the sauce

  1. Prepare the sauce by finely shredding the garlic, shallot, and mushrooms.

  2. Melt the butter in a stewpan, stir in the flour, then add the water and stock.

  3. Add the minced vegetables to the sauce, then remove from heat.

  4. Stir in the cream and a squeeze of lemon juice, ensuring the sauce does not boil after adding the vegetables.

Plate and serve

  1. Arrange the chicken and broiled bacon in a circle on a dish.

  2. Pour the sauce over them and serve.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,677 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken pieces
Provides the main body of the dish and browns in the hot oil for savory flavor.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as its starch absorbs the melted butter and liquid.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the finished sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the base of the sauce.
Button mushrooms
Add earthy, savory flavor and moisture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and lemon juice off the heat. Cream can separate and curdle when it boils, and lemon juice's acidity adds further risk to dairy. Keeping the sauce below a boil after adding the cream keeps it smooth and glossy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Tarragonfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, garlic, shallot, mushroom, butter, flour, cream. 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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