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Baking

Chicken Pie

A baked dish of cooked chicken topped with a buttery flour crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Chicken Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the sauce

  1. Place the cooked chicken in a baking dish.

  2. In a saucepan, melt 3 tablespoons of butter, then add 3 tablespoons of flour, stirring until smooth.

  3. Gradually add 4 cups of warm broth and 1 cup of milk, stirring until thickened.

  4. Pour the sauce over the chicken in the baking dish and place it in a warm oven.

Make the crust and bake

  1. For the crust, mix 2 ½ cups of flour with 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 teaspoon of salt.

  2. Rub in 2 tablespoons of butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine 1 beaten egg with 1 cup of milk, then add to the flour mixture and stir until just combined.

  4. Drop spoonfuls of the crust mixture over the chicken in the pan.

  5. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 30 minutes or until the crust is golden and cooked through.

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 + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  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
Forms the thickened sauce base and gives the crust its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that keeps the crust tender when rubbed into the flour.
Egg
Binds the crust mixture and adds structure as it sets in the oven.
Baking powder
Releases gas that makes the crust rise and become light.
Broth
Provides the liquid that, thickened with flour, forms the savory sauce.

The step that matters

Stir the crust mixture until just combined. Overmixing develops gluten in the flour, which makes the crust tough instead of light and tender. Stop once the dry flour is moistened.

“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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