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Chicken Pie

A chicken pie with biscuit crust, made by cooking chicken, thickening the liquid, and baking with biscuit dough.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cook the chicken in plenty of water until tender.

  2. Season the chicken with salt and pepper.

  3. Place the chicken in a large dripping pan.

Make the sauce

  1. Thicken the cooking liquid with flour and rich milk.

  2. Stir in the butter and egg yolk.

Top and bake

  1. Roll out the biscuit dough to ½ inch thick and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Lay the biscuit dough over the chicken.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden brown.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Flour + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together889 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + biscuittop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together841 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Flour and butter 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

Chicken
Provides the main protein and savory filling for the pie.
Flour
Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth, body-rich sauce.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and richness to the thickened sauce.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, flavorful sauce.
Egg yolk
Enriches the sauce and adds richness and color.
Biscuit dough
Forms the crust that bakes golden over the filling.

The step that matters

Thicken the cooking liquid with flour and rich milk. Flour must be cooked in hot liquid long enough to swell and thicken, or the sauce stays thin and tastes floury. Adding the egg yolk later should be done off the heat or gently, since high heat can curdle it.

“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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