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Fricasseed Chicken

A French-style chicken stew with cream, butter, flour, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Poach the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken skin side down in a small amount of water, seasoned with salt, pepper, and onion if desired, until tender.

  2. Remove the chicken and add cream or milk to the gravy.

  3. Thicken the gravy with butter and flour mixed smoothly.

  4. Boil the gravy for 2–3 minutes.

  5. Add chopped parsley.

  6. Serve the chicken.

Fry and finish

  1. Alternatively, fry the chicken in hot lard until brown, then remove it.

  2. In the same pan, add flour and cook for a minute, stirring constantly.

  3. Add water or stock, vinegar or Worcestershire sauce, and season with salt and pepper.

  4. Once boiled, remove from heat.

  5. Stir in beaten egg yolk.

  6. Pour the mixture over the chicken.

  7. Serve.

Salt pork method

  1. For a different method, stew the chicken in just enough water to cover until tender.

  2. Fry the chicken with salt pork until brown.

  3. Thicken the broth with brown flour mixed with water.

  4. Season the broth.

  5. Return the chicken and pork to the gravy.

  6. Simmer before serving.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 flavour, cooked until tender or browned.
Cream or milk
Adds richness and a creamy body to the gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and flavour to the roux that thickens the gravy.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as a roux with butter or fat.
Egg yolk
Enriches and thickens the gravy, adding richness and smoothness.
Vinegar or worcestershire sauce
Adds acidity and savoury depth that balances the rich gravy.

The step that matters

Adding the egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can scramble if the sauce is boiling. Remove the pan from heat before stirring it in, so the gravy stays smooth and creamy.

Swap the onion

The recipe marks onion as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, cream, butter, flour, parsley, vinegar):

  1. Shallotfits better
  2. Potatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, cream, butter, flour, parsley, vinegar. 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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