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Chicken Pie

A savory pie with stewed chicken, thickened stock, and pastry or biscuit crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Tea and celery work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 82 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cook the cut-up chicken as for stewed chicken.

  2. Season and thicken the stock by mixing 2 tablespoons of flour with a little cold water, then add to 1 cup of stock.

  3. Invert a small cup or place a pie funnel in the center of a baking dish; arrange the chicken around it and add the sauce.

Top and bake

  1. Cool slightly, then cover with pastry or rich tea biscuits.

  2. Make cuts in the crust to allow steam to escape.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the crust is cooked and browned.

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. Tea + celerytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together82 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  3. Flour + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,905 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Chicken + teatop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together145 recipes

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

  5. Flour + teatop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together449 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body of the pie and its savory meat flavor.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a sauce that holds the filling together.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding moisture and savory flavor.
Pastry or rich tea biscuits
Forms the topping that bakes and browns over the filling.

The step that matters

Cool slightly before covering with the crust. A filling that is too hot can soften the pastry from below and make it steam or turn soggy, while a slightly cooled filling helps the crust bake crisp and brown.

Swap the celery

The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, tea):

  1. Gingerfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Cinnamonfits better
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, tea. 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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