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Chicken Sauted Mascot

Chicken pieces sautéed in clarified butter, then finished with brandy, white wine, tomatoes and green peppers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Tomato and potato match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,798 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Sauted Mascot

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Season the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.

  2. Heat the clarified butter in a stew pan until very hot.

  3. Add the chicken pieces, starting with the legs, and brown on one side.

  4. Turn the chicken over and place the pan uncovered in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.

Prepare the vegetables

  1. Remove the watery matter from the tomatoes until only the thick part remains.

  2. Fry the tomatoes in butter, seasoning well.

  3. Boil the green pepper strips in salted water for 10 minutes.

  4. Drain the green pepper strips and stew them in butter like the tomatoes.

Make the gravy and serve

  1. Once the chicken is cooked, drain off the butter and add the brandy and white wine to the pan.

  2. Boil for a few minutes to detach the glaze from the bottom of the pan.

  3. Arrange the chicken on a dish, pour the tomatoes and peppers over it, and add the gravy.

  4. Garnish with lozenge-shaped potatoes fried in clarified butter.

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. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  4. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Browning and then gentle oven cooking firm up the meat while it stays juicy.
Clarified butter
Its high smoke point allows hot searing and browning without burning.
Tomatoes
Once thickened and fried, they add acidity and a concentrated, rich flavour.
Green peppers
Stewing in butter softens them and adds a fresh, slightly bitter note.
Brandy
Its alcohol dissolves the browned bits in the pan, adding aroma to the gravy.
White wine
Deglazing with wine lifts the cooking glaze and adds acidity to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken on one side before oven cooking. Searing in very hot butter creates a browned surface and flavourful glaze; if the pan is not hot enough the chicken steams and the pan glaze needed for the gravy is weak.

Swap the tomato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Onionfits about as well
  3. Tomatothe original
  4. Asparagusfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, brandy, white wine, potato. 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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