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Scalloped Chicken

A baked dish of shredded chicken and rice in tomato sauce topped with buttered crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Scalloped Chicken

Why it works: Chicken and rice 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 ↓

Scalloped Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the tomato sauce

  1. To make the tomato sauce, cook 2 tablespoons of butter and 1 heaping tablespoon of flour in a saucepan until smooth.

  2. Add ¼ teaspoon of coarse sea salt and ⅛ teaspoon of black pepper.

  3. Cook ½ can of tomatoes and ½ chopped onion together, strain, and add to the butter mixture.

  4. Cook for about 4 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In an earthen dish, layer equal parts of cold chicken and boiled rice.

  3. Spread each layer with tomato sauce.

  4. Cover the top with buttered crumbs.

  5. Bake for about 30 minutes.

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 + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

  2. Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,031 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Cold chicken
Provides the main protein and body of the dish.
Boiled rice
Adds bulk and soaks up the sauce, giving a soft, moist texture.
Tomato sauce
Supplies moisture and acidity that flavour and moisten the layers as they bake.
Buttered crumbs
Forms a top layer that browns in the oven, adding a crisp contrast.
Flour
Thickens the butter into a smooth base for the tomato sauce.

The step that matters

Cook the butter and flour until smooth. Cooking flour in butter, a roux, removes raw starch taste and lets the flour thicken the sauce evenly without lumps. Stirring as it cooks keeps it smooth.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Okrafits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

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