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Creamed Chicken

A baked chicken dish with cream sauce, butter, flour, pepper, onion, nutmeg, mushrooms, and bread crumb topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Creamed Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Creamed 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. Boil the chicken until cooked, then cut into small pieces.

Make the creamed filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the cream, butter, and flour to create a cream sauce.

  2. Pour the cream sauce over the chicken and mix well.

  3. Stir in the pepper, grated onion, nutmeg, and mushrooms.

Bake and serve

  1. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.

  2. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the dish and stays tender when simmered whole before cutting.
Cream
Provides richness and a smooth, body-rich sauce that coats the chicken.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the sauce and helps it stay smooth.
Flour
Thickens the cream into a sauce that holds the chicken together.
Mushrooms
Adds savory, earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping as the dish bakes.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream sauce. Flour must be mixed smoothly into the cream and butter so it cooks evenly; lumps stay raw and the sauce will not thicken properly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, cream, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, mushroom):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, butter, flour, pepper, nutmeg, mushroom. 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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