Name: Cold Chicken Fried
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 1 egg; 1 cup grated bread; ¼ teaspoon pepper; ¼ teaspoon coarse sea salt; 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel; 2 tablespoons chopped parsley; butter for frying; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 tablespoons butter (for thickening); ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper; 1 tablespoon lemon pickle; 1 tablespoon mushroom ketchup

Why it works: Lemon and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,037 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + lemontop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Eggs: Beaten egg helps the breadcrumb coating stick to the chicken surface.
Grated bread: Forms a crisp, golden coating on the chicken as it fries.
Flour: Thickens the gravy by swelling in the hot butter and liquid.
Butter: Fries the chicken to a golden brown and enriches the gravy with fat and flavour.
Mushroom ketchup: Adds savoury, umami depth to the brown gravy.

The step that matters

Fry the chicken in butter until golden brown. Frying over moderate heat lets the coating brown and crisp while the chicken cooks through. Too high a heat burns the breadcrumbs before the meat is cooked inside, and too low a heat leaves the coating pale and greasy.

“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.

Cold Chicken Fried