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Escalloped Chicken

A baked casserole of cold cooked chicken, rice, and tomato sauce topped with buttered bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Escalloped Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Escalloped Chicken

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Butter an earthen baking dish.

Layer and bake

  1. Layer cold cooked chicken in the dish.

  2. Add a layer of cooked rice.

  3. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

  4. Pour tomato sauce over the top.

  5. Cover with buttered bread crumbs.

  6. Bake until 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.

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 + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

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

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

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

  5. Tomato + breadtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,013 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold cooked chicken
Forms the main protein body of the dish, providing bulk and savory flavor.
Cooked rice
Adds bulk between chicken layers and absorbs some of the sauce's moisture.
Tomato sauce
Supplies moisture and acidity that soaks through the layers as the dish bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bread crumbs brown in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping through contact with butter and oven heat.

The step that matters

Bake until brown. Baking long enough lets the buttered bread crumbs toast and the sauce heat through; underbaking leaves the topping pale and the layers cool inside.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, sauce, butter, bread):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, sauce, butter, 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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