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Chicken, Casserole of

A chicken casserole with bacon, mushrooms, shallot, and stock, finished with a butter‑flour roux.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chicken, Casserole of

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and brown

  1. Divide the chicken into neat joints.

  2. Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in a casserole large enough to hold the chicken.

  3. Fry the bacon until crispy.

  4. Add the chicken, shallot, and mushrooms to the casserole, cover, and cook slowly.

  5. Turn the chicken pieces over and brown both sides.

Braise and thicken

  1. Add stock to barely cover the chicken and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Knead the flour and remaining tablespoon of butter together.

  3. Add the roux in small pieces about 15 minutes before serving.

  4. Serve the chicken in the casserole or transfer to a hot dish.

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.

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. Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  3. Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  5. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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, which becomes tender as it cooks slowly in the covered casserole.
Butter
Adds richness and fat for browning the chicken, and with flour forms the roux that thickens the sauce.
Flour
Kneaded with butter into a roux, it thickens the stock into a smooth sauce.
Streaky bacon
Renders fat and savoury flavour into the pan for the chicken and mushrooms.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and moisture that combines with the stock to form the sauce.

The step that matters

Adding the roux in small pieces. Flour thickens liquid only when it is dispersed and heated, so adding the butter-flour roux in small pieces lets it melt and blend evenly, preventing lumps in the sauce.

Swap the shallot

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Shallotthe original
  3. Potatofits about as well
  4. Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, mushroom, 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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