Why it works: Chicken and mushroom match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,171 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
The recipe
Ingredients
Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Layer
Lay cubed bread on bottom of buttered pan.
Mix together the chicken, mushrooms, water chestnuts and mayonnaise.
Spread the mixture over the bread cubes.
Mix eggs, salt and milk.
Spread the mixture over the chicken layer.
Lay cheese slices on top of egg layer.
Mix the soups and spread them over the cheese layer.
Arrange pimentos over the top of soup layer.
Chill
Cover with foil.
Refrigerate overnight.
Uncover and sprinkle with bread crumbs before baking.
Bake and serve
Bake for 30 minutes in 350°F oven.
Spoon sauce over top.
Make the sauce
Place all ingredients in sauce pan.
Simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.
Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.
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Chicken + mushroomtop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,171 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Bread + cheesetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,130 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Cheese + milktop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,424 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Bread + milktop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together11,363 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
-
Mushroom + cheesetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together1,014 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Bread
- Forms the base structure and soaks up the egg mixture to set the strata.
- Eggs
- Set when baked, binding the layers into a firm, custardy texture.
- Milk
- Adds moisture to the egg mixture, keeping the custard tender as it bakes.
- American cheese
- Melts into the layers, adding richness and a creamy, savory flavor.
- Mayonnaise
- Adds fat and moisture to the chicken layer, keeping it tender rather than dry.
The step that matters
Refrigerating overnight. Chilling lets the bread cubes soak up the egg and milk mixture evenly. Bread that is only partly soaked bakes up dense or dry in spots, while fully soaked bread sets into a uniform, custardy layer.
Flavor stand-ins for the water chestnut
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, chicken, mushroom, cheese, egg, milk, cream):
- Coconutbetter flavor fit
- Grapebetter flavor fit
- Applebetter flavor fit
- Water chestnutthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against bread, chicken, mushroom, cheese, egg, milk, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).
“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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