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Scalloped Chicken

A baked chicken dish with milk, bread crumbs, butter, and seasonings.

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

Why it works: Bread and butter 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 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, heat the milk until boiling.

  2. Mix the corn starch with a little milk, then add it to the boiling milk.

  3. Stir in the butter, bread crumbs, and chicken broth; season with salt and pepper.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and line it with a thick layer of bread crumbs.

  2. Pour the mixture into the dish, top with another layer of bread crumbs, and add a few bits of butter.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 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. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  4. Bread + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Corn + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,324 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 meat
Provides the main protein and savory bulk of the dish.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that the cornstarch thickens into a creamy sauce.
Corn starch
Thickens the boiling milk so the mixture holds together when baked.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the liquid and give the dish body, with crisp layers on top.
Eggs
Help bind the mixture and set it firm as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Adding the corn starch to the boiling milk. Cornstarch clumps if it hits hot liquid dry. Mixing it with a little cold milk first lets the starch disperse evenly, so the sauce thickens smoothly rather than lumpy.

“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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