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Fricassee of Chicken

A stew of chicken pieces simmered in a sauce of onion, lard, flour, stock, vinegar, sherry, Worcestershire sauce, and egg yolk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Brown the chicken

  1. Sauté the chicken pieces with minced onion in lard over medium heat until browned.

  2. Add flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Simmer the sauce

  1. Pour in boiling water or stock, vinegar, sherry (if using), Worcestershire sauce, salt, and pepper.

  2. Cover and cook slowly for at least 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Strain the sauce, removing any fat, and mix in the egg yolk.

  2. Pour the sauce over the chicken and serve.

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. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

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

  3. Vinegar + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together660 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-ethyl-2-methoxyphenol (smoky, clove).

  4. Onion + vinegartop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,226 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Vinegar + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,814 recipes

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

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, which browns in lard to build savory flavor before simmering.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it is stirred into the fat.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce, adding body and richness when mixed in at the end.
Lard
Adds fat for browning the chicken and carrying flavor through the dish.
Vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the rich sauce.

The step that matters

Mix in the egg yolk off the heat. Egg yolk thickens by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if the sauce is too hot. Straining first and adding it at a low temperature keeps the sauce smooth and glossy.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, vinegar, sherry, sauce, pepper, egg):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, vinegar, sherry, sauce, pepper, egg. 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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