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Scalloped Chicken

A baked chicken dish with gravy, butter, egg, and bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

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

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, heat the gravy or rich drawn butter until hot.

  2. Thicken the gravy, then stir in the chicken and bring to a boil.

  3. Remove from heat and add the beaten egg.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a dish and cover the bottom with fine bread crumbs.

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

  3. Dot the top with bits of butter and bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until browned.

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. Bread + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 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

Chicken
Provides the main bulk and meaty texture of the dish.
Gravy
Supplies moisture and savory flavor that binds the chicken together.
Egg
Sets with heat to bind the filling into a cohesive, sliceable mass.
Bread crumbs
Form the crisp topping and absorb moisture from the filling.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the top crumbs brown in the oven.

The step that matters

Adding the beaten egg off the heat. Egg proteins set at around 160°F and can scramble into curds if the mixture is too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before stirring in the egg lets it thicken the filling smoothly.

“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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