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Creamed Chicken

A creamy chicken dish made with butter, flour, stock, milk, and seasonings.

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

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Creamed Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Heat the chicken in a saucepan over medium heat.

Make the cream sauce

  1. In a separate pan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, salt, celery salt, and cayenne until smooth.

  2. Gradually add the chicken stock and milk, stirring until thickened.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the heated chicken and parsley, mixing well.

  2. Serve in Swedish timbales, patty shells, or a potato border.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  4. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  5. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter 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

Butter
Forms the fat base that is cooked with the flour to start the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the butter and liquid, giving it body.
Milk
Makes up the liquid of the sauce, adding creaminess and richness.
Chicken stock
Adds liquid and savory flavor to the sauce as it thickens.
Cooked chicken
Provides the main protein and substance of the dish.

The step that matters

Gradually add the chicken stock and milk, stirring until thickened. Adding the liquid slowly while stirring keeps the flour dispersed so the sauce thickens smoothly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the celery

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Tarragonfits about as well
  4. Celerythe original

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