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Fricassee X LA Minute

A quick chicken fricassee with butter, flour, parsley, shallots, mushrooms, wine, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and shallot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,737 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Fricassee X LA Minute

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter over medium heat.

  2. Fry the chicken pieces quickly until golden, then remove them from the pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Add the flour to the pan and stir until smooth.

  2. Mix in the parsley, shallots, salt, pepper, spices, and mushrooms.

  3. Pour in the white wine and chicken stock, stirring to combine.

Finish and serve

  1. Return the chicken to the pan and let it stew for a few minutes.

  2. Serve the chicken with the sauce.

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 + shallottop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,737 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  4. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + white winetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,765 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and, as it stews, flavours the sauce with its juices.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and helps brown the chicken pieces.
Flour
Thickens the pan juices and wine into a smooth sauce.
White wine
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sauce.
Chicken stock
Adds liquid and savoury depth to the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a tender texture to the sauce.

The step that matters

Fry the chicken pieces quickly until golden. Browning the surface creates savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Overcrowding or low heat makes the chicken steam and go pale, leaving the sauce tasting flat.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, shallot, pepper, mushroom, white wine):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, shallot, pepper, mushroom, white wine. 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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