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White Fricassee of Chicken

A white chicken fricassee made with boiled chicken, bay leaf, onion, parsley, and cream sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

White Fricassee of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Singe, clean, and wipe the chicken, then cut it into joints.

  2. Place the chicken and giblets in a saucepan with the bay leaf, sliced onion, and parsley.

  3. Pour in enough boiling water to barely cover the chicken.

Simmer

  1. Bring to a boil and cook rapidly for 5 minutes.

  2. Reduce heat and simmer until the chicken is tender, adding salt halfway through.

  3. Once tender, remove any remaining water and discard the bay leaf, onion, and parsley.

Serve

  1. Arrange the chicken on a heated platter and pour the Cream Sauce over it.

  2. Sprinkle finely chopped parsley on top for garnish.

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 + parsleytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,843 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Onion + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,827 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

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

Onion and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,827 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 the meat that becomes tender during simmering.
Cream sauce
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy coating over the cooked chicken.
Giblets
Add extra savory flavor to the cooking liquid.

The step that matters

Simmering until tender. Boiling rapidly toughens muscle proteins, so the liquid should only barely simmer. Gentle heat lets the connective tissue soften and keeps the meat moist and tender.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Capersfits better
  3. Celeryfits better
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, 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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