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Scalloped Chicken

Scalloped Chicken is a baked chicken dish with a buttery gravy and breadcrumb topping.

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

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Scalloped Chicken

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. Remove gristle and skin from the chicken and cut it into pieces half an inch long.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the gravy or drawn butter and thicken it well.

  3. Stir in the chicken and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and add a beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Cover the bottom of a baking dish with fine bread crumbs.

  2. Pour the chicken mixture into the dish and add another thick layer of crumbs on top.

  3. Dot the top with bits of butter and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden 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. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  3. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  4. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the dish and provides its savory, meaty base.
Gravy or drawn butter
Binds the chicken into a moist mixture that holds together when baked.
Egg
Sets during baking so the chicken mixture firms up and holds its shape.
Fine bread crumbs
Form crisp layers on top and bottom that brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top crumbs brown evenly.

The step that matters

Thicken the gravy or drawn butter well before adding the egg. If the sauce is not thick enough, the chicken mixture stays loose and watery. Adding the egg off the heat avoids scrambling it, so it sets gently in the oven instead of curdling in the pan.

“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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