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Escalloped Chicken

A dish of tender chicken baked with cracker crumbs and butter, layered and broiled until browned.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Escalloped Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 13,902 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Escalloped Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cook the chickens until very tender.

  2. Season with salt and pepper.

  3. Cut the chicken into small pieces.

Assemble and bake

  1. In a baking dish, layer the chicken, cracker crumbs, and bits of butter.

  2. Repeat layers until the dish is full.

  3. Add enough broth to cover each layer.

  4. Sprinkle crumbs over the top.

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

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

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Pepper + buttertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main protein body of the dish, providing bulk and savory flavor.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and add body, helping the layers hold together while baking.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, helping the top crumbs brown during baking.
Broth from cooked chicken
Supplies moisture that softens the crumbs and keeps the layers from drying out.

The step that matters

Add enough broth to cover each layer. Crumbs need enough liquid to soften and bind with the chicken; too little broth leaves dry, crumbly layers, while the baked top needs enough moisture to set without drying out.

“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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