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Chicken Casserole

A casserole of chicken pieces simmered with onion, flour, stock, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Chicken Casserole

Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Chicken Casserole

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Dress, clean, and cut the chicken into pieces, removing the skin.

  2. Sprinkle the chicken with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour.

Brown and build the sauce

  1. Sauté the onion in butter until well browned, then transfer to a casserole dish.

  2. Sauté the chicken in butter until browned on all sides, then add to the onion in the casserole.

  3. Add ½ tablespoon flour to the pan, then stir in the chicken stock and bring to a boil.

Bake

  1. Season the sauce, pour it over the chicken, and add the bay leaf, potato balls, carrot cubes, sherry, and mushrooms.

  2. Cover the casserole and cook in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until the chicken is tender.

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. Onion + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  2. Potato + carrottop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Browning in butter and slow cooking in the covered casserole keeps the meat tender and moist.
All-purpose flour
Dredging and the small amount added to the pan help thicken the sauce.
Onion
Browning the onion builds savory, sweet flavor that forms the base of the sauce.
Chicken stock
Forms the liquid of the sauce that cooks the chicken and vegetables.
Carrot
Adds sweetness and body to the casserole as it cooks in the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken in butter. Searing the chicken until browned on all sides creates flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale, crowded pieces will steam and taste flat, so brown them in batches.

Swap the carrot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, flour, butter, onion, potato, sherry):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Chivefits about as well
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, flour, butter, onion, potato, sherry. 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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