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Creamed Chicken

A baked chicken dish with cream, mushrooms, and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 with the onion, peppercorns, salt, and celery until tender.

  2. Cut the chicken into pieces as for a salad.

Make the sauce

  1. Strain 1 cup of the mushroom can water and thicken it with the flour; boil until transparent.

  2. Mix the cream with the thickened water and pour it over the chicken and mushrooms.

Assemble and bake

  1. Butter a baking dish and cover the sides and bottom with cracker crumbs.

  2. Layer the chicken and mushrooms alternately in the dish until all are used.

  3. Cover with a thin layer of cracker crumbs and dot with butter.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) 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 + 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. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the dish, becoming tender when simmered.
Flour
Thickens the mushroom liquid into a smooth sauce that binds the dish together.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the layers.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp base and topping that brown in the oven.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and helps the top brown.

The step that matters

Thickening the mushroom liquid. Flour must be boiled until the mixture turns transparent so its starch fully swells and the sauce thickens smoothly without a raw, floury taste.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Capersfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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