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Creamed Chicken

A baked chicken dish with celery, mushrooms, and a creamy sauce topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Creamed Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Creamed Chicken

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 the filling

  1. Boil the chicken until cooked.

  2. Remove the meat and chop it as for salad.

  3. Drain the mushrooms.

  4. Mix the chicken, mushrooms, and celery together.

Make the sauce

  1. In a pan, stir the butter and flour until smooth.

  2. Heat the milk or cream.

  3. Add the hot mushroom juice and pour it over the butter and flour mixture.

  4. Season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish.

  2. Layer the chicken mixture and dressing until full.

  3. Top with bread and cracker crumbs.

  4. Dot with small pieces of butter.

  5. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 30 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

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

  3. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main body of the dish as cooked, shredded meat.
Butter and flour
Flour thickens the milk into a smooth sauce, while butter adds richness and flavor.
Milk or cream
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, giving it a creamy, smooth texture.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture, with their juice enriching the sauce.
Bread and cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden topping as they toast and brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the butter and flour smooth before adding liquid. Flour must be fully blended into the butter so it dissolves evenly into the liquid; otherwise the sauce can turn lumpy instead of thick and smooth.

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, butter, flour, milk, pepper, bread):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Garlicfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, butter, flour, milk, pepper, bread. 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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