Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Creamed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Steam the chicken until tender, and use the liquid for basting.
Cut up the chicken into choice pieces, and bone the first joint if used.
Make the gravy and braise
Place the chicken in a dripping pan and cover the pan to prevent browning.
Make a sauce with flour, water, and butter, seasoned to taste, until it thickens to the consistency of cream.
Baste the chicken with the sauce until tender.
Sprinkle the chicken with flour and let it brown, turning the pieces in the sauce.
Ten minutes before serving, add cream to the gravy to achieve the desired thickness.
Continue turning the chicken in the gravy until ready to serve.
Thin the gravy with cream or water if it is thick after removing the chicken.
Strain the gravy after cooking.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
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Flour + peppertop 19% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together50,459 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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 meat, which becomes tender through steaming and then simmering in the sauce.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce into gravy and helps the coated pieces brown.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour to the sauce.
- Cream
- Adds richness and body, thickening the gravy to the desired consistency.
The step that matters
Covering the pan to prevent browning. Covering the chicken keeps moisture in and slows surface browning while it cooks through, so the meat stays tender; browning is added later by sprinkling with flour and turning the pieces in the sauce.
“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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