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Creamed Chicken

A creamy chicken dish with mushrooms, peas, and cream.

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

Make the sauce

  1. Melt butter and flour in a chafing dish.

  2. Add cream, stirring until it thickens.

Finish and serve

  1. Add chicken, mushrooms, and peas; cook for several minutes.

  2. Season to taste and serve on toast if desired.

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. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mushroom + peastop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together890 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Thickens the butter and cream into a smooth, stable sauce.
Cream
Forms the body of the sauce, which thickens as it is stirred and heated.
Butter
Carries the flour and adds richness and flavor to the sauce.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and substance of the dish.
Mushrooms
Adds earthy flavor and a tender, meaty texture.
Peas
Adds sweetness and color to the finished dish.

The step that matters

Adding cream to the roux. Cream should be added gradually while stirring so the flour and butter blend smoothly. Adding it too fast can leave lumps, and the sauce thickens only as it heats, so it needs steady stirring until it is smooth and thick.

Swap the peas

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

  1. Cashew nutfits better
  2. Almondfits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Peasthe original

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