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Chicken in Rice Casserole

A baked casserole of rice and seasoned chicken with a creamy sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Chicken in Rice Casserole

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 rice

  1. Wash the rice and boil it in water for 20 minutes, then drain.

  2. Add milk, butter, salt, and pepper to the rice, stirring until smooth.

  3. Brush custard cups with butter and line them with the rice mixture, about ½ inch high.

Make the filling

  1. Rub together butter and flour, then add hot milk, stirring until boiling.

  2. Add salt, pepper, and the seasoned chicken to the mixture.

  3. Fill the cups with the chicken mixture.

  4. Cover with a layer of rice.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the cups in a pan of boiling water.

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

  3. Carefully turn out onto a heated dish.

  4. Garnish with peas and serve.

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.

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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

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

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Rice + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,434 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 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

Rice
Forms the structure and base layers that hold the casserole together.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, and helps the rice mixture become smooth.
Flour
Thickens the hot milk into a sauce that binds the chicken filling.
Milk
Supplies moisture and creaminess to the rice and the sauce.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and savoury filling inside the casserole.

The step that matters

Place the cups in a pan of boiling water. This water bath keeps the heat gentle and even, so the custard-like mixture sets evenly without drying out or cracking at the edges.

Swap the peas

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, milk, butter, pepper, flour, chicken):

  1. Beansfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Peanutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, milk, butter, pepper, flour, chicken. 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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