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Chicken Casserole

A baked chicken casserole with rice, herbs, egg, breadcrumbs, and stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Chicken Casserole

Why it works: Rice and chicken 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 ↓

Chicken Casserole

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line the bottom and sides of a 3‑pint baking dish with boiled rice.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine chopped chicken, salt, pepper, herbs or onion, beaten egg, and bread crumbs.

  2. Add enough stock or gravy to moisten the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Place the chicken mixture in the center of the dish and dust with additional bread crumbs.

  2. Bake until nicely browned, or steam for 45 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. Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice
Forms the base layer that holds the casserole together and soaks up moisture.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and the bulk of the filling.
Beaten egg
Binds the filling so it holds together when sliced and served.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid and add texture, and the topping browns in the oven.
Stock or gravy
Moistens the filling so it does not dry out while cooking.

The step that matters

Moisten the filling without making it wet. Adding too much stock or gravy thins the mixture so it cannot set, while too little leaves the bread crumbs dry and the filling crumbly. Add liquid gradually until the mixture is just moist enough to hold together.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, chicken, pepper, egg, bread):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Tomatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, chicken, pepper, egg, bread. 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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