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Chicken Souffle

A baked chicken soufflé made with milk, butter, flour, egg yolks, egg whites, bread crumbs, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Souffle

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the white sauce

  1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour until well blended.

  3. Gradually add the milk.

  4. Stir constantly until the mixture thickens.

  5. Stir in the bread crumbs.

  6. Cook for 2 minutes.

  7. Remove the mixture from heat.

Add the flavourings

  1. Mix in the shredded chicken, beaten egg yolks, salt, pepper, and chopped parsley.

  2. Cook for 1 minute.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

Bake and serve

  1. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites until combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a buttered baking dish.

  3. Place the dish in a larger pan filled with hot water.

  4. Bake at 300°F (150°C) for 35 minutes, or until firm to the touch.

  5. Accompany with tomato sauce if serving for lunch.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. 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

Egg whites
Whipped air is trapped in the batter, letting the souffle rise and gives it a light, airy texture.
Egg yolks
Yolks add richness and, as they set, help give the souffle structure and a tender crumb.
Flour
Flour thickens the melted butter and milk into a sauce that holds the mixture together.
Milk
Milk forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and a soft, creamy body.
Butter
Butter, melted with flour, forms the base of the sauce and adds richness.
Cooked chicken
Shredded chicken is the main filling, adding substance and savoury flavour.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites. Egg whites hold air bubbles that expand in the oven and lift the souffle. Stirring or deflating them too hard knocks out this air, so the souffle rises less and turns dense.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Cinnamonfits about as well
  4. Thymefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, pepper, chicken, egg, bread. 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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