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Fricasseed Chicken

A boiled chicken dish simmered with pork fat, onion, parsley, butter, flour, and a thickened gravy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper 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 ↓

Fricasseed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Soak the chicken joints in cold water with a little salt for 30 minutes, then dry with a clean cloth.

  2. In a pot, scatter chopped fat salt pork and half a teaspoon of minced onion. Place the chicken pieces on top, add more pork and onion, then cover with cold water.

Cook the chicken

  1. Cover the pot and heat slowly without boiling for at least 1 hour. Increase the heat to maintain a gentle boil for another hour or until the chicken is tender.

  2. Remove the chicken and keep warm on a dish.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Add parsley, butter, flour, salt, and pepper to the pot, and stir until boiling.

  2. Beat the egg, cornstarch, and milk together. Add a cup of the boiling gravy to the mixture and stir.

  3. Pour this mixture into the pot, bring to a quick boil, then remove from heat and pour over the chicken. Cover and let stand over hot water for 3 minutes before 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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Onion + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Onion + porktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,214 recipes

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

  5. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken fowl
Provides the meat and rich cooking liquid that becomes the base of the dish.
Egg
Thickens the gravy and adds richness when gently heated with the milk.
Flour
Thickens the gravy as its starch swells in the hot liquid.
Cornstarch
Adds thickening power to the egg and milk mixture for a smooth, glossy gravy.
Butter
Adds fat and rich flavor to the gravy.
Milk
Adds creaminess and body to the gravy.

The step that matters

Add the egg mixture without boiling it hard. Egg proteins set when heated, so the gravy can curdle or turn grainy if the egg and milk mixture is boiled too vigorously. Adding some hot gravy first gently warms the egg before it joins the pot.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pork, parsley, butter, flour, pepper, egg, milk):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pork, parsley, butter, flour, pepper, egg, milk. 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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