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Broiled Chicken Normande

A broiled chicken with bacon, vegetables, and a creamy tomato sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,377 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Broiled Chicken Normande

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 and roast

  1. Clean, split the chicken down the back, and press it open flat.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and place it in a biscuit pan.

  3. Add the minced onion, green pepper, and celery on top of the chicken.

  4. Cover the chicken with thin strips of bacon.

  5. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C), basting occasionally until tender.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour until blended.

  3. Gradually add the cream, stirring until slightly thickened.

  4. Season the sauce with salt and pepper.

  5. Add the catsup just before removing from heat.

  6. Pour the sauce over the chicken when 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. Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,377 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the dish, becoming tender through slow oven roasting with basting.
Bacon
Covers the chicken, rendering fat that moistens the meat and adds savory flavor.
Butter
Melted fat that forms the base of the roux for the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Sweet cream
Becomes the body of the sauce, giving it richness and a silky texture when thickened.

The step that matters

Gradually add the cream, stirring until slightly thickened. Adding cream all at once to the butter and flour can form lumps, because flour needs to be dispersed before it thickens. Adding it gradually while stirring keeps the sauce smooth.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, onion, celery, butter, cream, flour):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Spinachfits better
  4. Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, onion, celery, butter, cream, flour. 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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