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Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy

A fried chicken served with a cream gravy made from butter, flour, cream or milk, baking soda, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Fried Chicken with Cream Gravy

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Strain the fat from the cooked chicken.

  2. Stir in a lump of butter rolled in slightly browned flour.

  3. When it bubbles, add ½ cup of hot cream or milk mixed with a pinch of baking soda.

  4. Stir for two minutes to prevent scorching.

Finish and serve

  1. Add 1 tablespoon of minced parsley and pour over the chicken.

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + parsleytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together28,563 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  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

Flour
Browned in butter, it thickens the fat into a roux that gives the gravy body.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and a toasty flavour to the gravy.
Cream or milk
Adds liquid and fat, making the gravy smooth, creamy and mellow.
Baking soda
Raises the pH of the milk, which helps keep the cream from curdling as it heats.

The step that matters

Stirring after the cream goes in. Once the hot cream or milk is added, the sugars and proteins in the dairy can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Stirring constantly for two minutes keeps heat even and prevents burning and lumps.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Garlicfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, 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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