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Breaded Chicken

Breaded chicken pieces baked with butter, cream, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Breaded Chicken

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 ↓

Breaded Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chickens into pieces as for fricassee.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten egg, then in bread-crumbs or rolled crackers.

  3. Season with pepper, coarse sea salt, and minced parsley.

Bake

  1. Place the pieces in a baking pan and top each with a lump of butter.

  2. Add ½ cup of hot water to the pan.

  3. Bake at 300°F (150°C), basting often.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Once cooked, transfer the chicken to a warm platter.

  2. In the pan, pour in 1 cup of cream or rich milk and 1 cup of bread-crumbs.

  3. Stir until cooked.

  4. Pour the sauce over the chicken.

  5. Serve while hot.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  4. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the bread-crumb coating so it adheres to the chicken pieces.
Bread-crumbs
Form a crisp coating on the outside of the chicken as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the chicken brown and taste rich.
Cream or rich milk
Forms the sauce base, adding richness and body when stirred in the pan.

The step that matters

Stir the sauce until cooked. Cream or milk can scorch or curdle if overheated, and thickening depends on gentle, steady stirring. Keep the heat moderate and stir constantly until smooth and warm.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Garlicfits about as well

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