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Cream Chicken

Cream Chicken is a baked chicken dish with a cream and mushroom sauce topped with breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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 ↓

Cream Chicken

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken until cooked.

  2. Let it cool.

  3. Cut into salad-sized pieces.

Make the sauce

  1. Combine the cream and milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil.

  2. Melt the butter in another pan.

  3. Add the flour and stir until combined.

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

  5. Add the grated onion.

  6. Add a pinch of nutmeg.

  7. Season the sauce with black and red pepper to taste.

Assemble and bake

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

  2. Transfer to a baking dish.

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

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

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
Forms the bulk of the dish, providing the main protein and substance.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the sauce.
Milk
Thins the sauce and adds creaminess along with the cream.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the butter and milk mixture into a smooth sauce that holds the dish together.
Butter
Adds fat and flavor, and helps make the roux that thickens the sauce.
Grated bread crumbs
Forms a crisp, golden topping through browning in the oven.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling milk and cream mixture over the butter and flour. Adding hot liquid to the roux while stirring helps it blend smoothly; if added too quickly or unstirred, lumps can form and the sauce may thicken unevenly.

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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