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Chicken Souffle

A baked chicken soufflé made with shredded chicken, cream sauce, eggs, and baking powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Pepper and parsley 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 ↓

Chicken Souffle

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the base

  1. Combine the shredded chicken with cream sauce, salt, pepper, and parsley in a pan.

  2. Cook the mixture for 2 minutes.

  3. Remove the pan from heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks.

  4. Allow the mixture to cool.

Fold and bake

  1. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  3. Bake for 20 minutes.

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. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  2. Cream + saucetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Pepper + chickentop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Chicken + parsleytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,314 recipes

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

  5. Egg + parsleytop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,765 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whipped whites trap air and lift the mixture, while yolks add richness and help set it.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and savory body of the filling.
Cream sauce
Adds moisture and richness, keeping the base tender rather than dry.
Magic baking powder
Releases gas during baking to help the soufflé rise further.

The step that matters

Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites. Whites hold air bubbles that make the soufflé rise. Vigorous stirring knocks that air out, so the folding must be gentle and stop once no white streaks remain.

Swap the parsley

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, pepper, chicken, cream, sauce. 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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