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Chicken Pie

A baked dish of chicken in a crust with a creamy broth filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Joint the chicken and stew until very tender.

  2. Remove the meat from the bones and place it in the bottom of a baking dish.

  3. In a pan, combine the chicken broth and milk, and season to taste.

  4. Thicken the mixture with the butter and flour blended together until hot.

  5. Pour the thickened broth over the chicken, reserving some for a gravy boat.

Make the crust and bake

  1. For the crust, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl.

  2. Add the butter or lard and mix well.

  3. Wet the mixture with the milk and beaten egg, adding more milk if necessary to make a soft dough.

  4. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) for 15 minutes or until the crust is baked through.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

Chicken broth
Forms the savoury liquid that becomes the thickened gravy over the chicken.
Flour
Thickens the broth into a gravy and gives structure to the crust.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the dough so the crust rises and turns light.
Butter or lard
Cut into the flour to make the crust tender and flaky.
Egg
Binds the crust dough and adds richness and structure.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness to both the gravy and the crust dough.

The step that matters

Make the soft dough with the milk and egg. Adding too little liquid leaves a dry, crumbly crust, while too much makes it sticky and dense. Add milk gradually until the dough is soft but still holds together.

“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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