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Creamed Chicken

Chicken pieces covered in a cream and milk sauce with mushrooms, onions, and spices, baked with bread crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Creamed Chicken

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 ↓

Creamed Chicken

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken.

  2. Let the chicken cool.

  3. Cut the chicken as for salad.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, combine cream and milk and bring to a boil.

  2. In another pan, melt the butter.

  3. Add the flour to the melted butter.

  4. Pour the boiling milk and cream over the butter and flour mixture.

  5. Flavor the sauce with grated onion and a little grated nutmeg.

  6. Season the sauce with black and red pepper.

Bake and serve

  1. Mix the chicken, mushrooms, and sauce together.

  2. Transfer the mixture to a baking dish.

  3. Cover with grated bread crumbs and small pieces of butter.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for about 20 minutes or until brown.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, 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 and bulk of the dish.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the sauce.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a stable white sauce.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor to the roux and browns the crumb topping.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, browned topping when baked.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling milk and cream over the butter and flour mixture. Flour must be cooked evenly into the fat before liquid is added, and the hot liquid should be added gradually while stirring. Adding it all at once or to cold roux can create lumps, so the sauce will not thicken smoothly.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits about as well
  3. Nutmegthe original
  4. Celeryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, cream, milk, flour, butter, onion. 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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