Quartered small chickens with golden skin in a brown earthenware casserole, in glossy brown sauce with potato balls, carrot strips and bits of bacon. — Small chickens baked en casserole with bacon, carrots and potato balls.

Squab Chicken en Casserole (1910)

Name: Squab Chicken en Casserole
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 50 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 2 Cornish hens or poussins (about 1 1/4 lb each); 1/2 tsp salt; 1/4 tsp pepper; 2 tbsp butter, melted; 3 tbsp butter, for the brown sauce; 1/2 thin slice onion, for the brown sauce; 4 tbsp flour; 1 1/3 cups beef stock; 1/3 cup carrot strips; 1 tbsp finely chopped onion; 4 thin slices bacon, cut in narrow strips; 2/3 cup potato balls (from 2 medium potatoes); 1 tsp salt, for the cooking water; 3 tbsp dry sherry

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Squab chicken en casserole from Fannie Farmer’s 1910 cookbook: two small young chickens baked with bacon, carrot, potato balls, brown sauce and sherry.

By The Forgotten MenuPublished Oct 27, 2026

Recipe makes: 4 servings
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 50 min
Total: 1 hr 20 min

Make the brown sauce and parboil the carrots and potato balls while the chicken has its first short bake. Check the thickest pieces with a thermometer before serving.

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Small chickens baked en casserole with bacon, carrots and potato balls.

The story behind the recipe

Squab chicken en casserole was the last meat at the Pan American Society’s dinner on 27 May 1912, after the filet of beef and before the alligator pears. The menu gives the name only. This recipe comes from the 1910 edition of Fannie Farmer’s Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, two years before the dinner.

A small chicken in its baking dish

A squab is a young pigeon, and Farmer kept pigeons and squabs apart from her poultry. The name squab chicken points to a chicken small enough to serve one or two, and Farmer’s “Chicken en Casserole” asks for small birds: “two small, young chickens,” cut in pieces and baked in the dish they are served in, with a garnish of bacon, carrot and potato balls in brown sauce and sherry. “If small casserole dishes are used,” she adds, “allow but one chicken to each dish.”

On the same page is a “Breslin Potted Chicken,” whole small birds baked covered in a casserole dish and finished with potato balls, string beans, carrot and mushrooms. Farmer gives the two side by side, one bird in pieces and the other whole.

Making it today

We read squab chicken as a bird of about a pound and a quarter, so Cornish hens or poussins stand in for Farmer’s small young chickens, cut into quarters. Her brown sauce is made with brown stock; good beef stock from a carton does the same job. Her short first bake is twelve minutes, and her second twenty, in a moderate oven. We bake at 375°F (190°C) and go by the thermometer: the thickest piece must reach 165°F (74°C).

The dinner and its menu are in What Was Served at the Pan American Society’s Dinner in 1912?. The salad that came next was Alligator Pear Salad (1899).

Cut two small, young chickens in pieces for serving. Season with salt and pepper, brush over with melted butter, and bake in a casserole dish twelve minutes. Parboil one-third cup carrots cut in strips five minutes, drain, and fry with one tablespoon finely chopped onion and four thin slices bacon cut in narrow strips. Add one and one-third cups Brown Sauce and two-thirds cup potato balls. Add to chicken, with three tablespoons Sherry wine, salt and pepper to taste. Cook in a moderate oven twenty minutes, or until chicken is tender. If small casserole dishes are used allow but one chicken to each dish.

Fannie Merritt FarmerThe Boston Cooking-School Cook Book, revised edition (Boston: Little, Brown, 1910), Chicken en Casserole, p. 252, and Brown Sauce I, p. 267

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Ingredients

For 4 servings. Quantities are shown as written.

Quantities as written here, for 4 servings.

Cornish hens or poussins (about 1 1/4 lb each)2
Salt1/2 tsp
Pepper1/4 tsp
Butter, melted2 tbsp
Butter, for the brown sauce3 tbsp
Thin slice onion, for the brown sauce1/2
Flour4 tbsp
Beef stock1 1/3 cups
Carrot strips1/3 cup
Finely chopped onion1 tbsp
Thin slices bacon, cut in narrow strips4
Potato balls (from 2 medium potatoes)2/3 cup
Salt, for the cooking water1 tsp
Dry sherry3 tbsp

Ingredients as written here

2 Cornish hens or poussins (about 1 1/4 lb each)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tbsp butter, melted
3 tbsp butter, for the brown sauce
1/2 thin slice onion, for the brown sauce
4 tbsp flour
1 1/3 cups beef stock
1/3 cup carrot strips
1 tbsp finely chopped onion
4 thin slices bacon, cut in narrow strips
2/3 cup potato balls (from 2 medium potatoes)
1 tsp salt, for the cooking water
3 tbsp dry sherry

Equipment

Ovenproof casserole dish with a lid, about 3 quarts
Small saucepan
Frying pan
Melon baller
Instant-read thermometer

Instructions

Heat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Cut each Cornish hen into quarters: two breast-and-wing pieces and two leg pieces. Season them with the salt and pepper, brush with the melted butter, and arrange them skin side up in the casserole. Bake uncovered for 12 minutes.
Meanwhile make the brown sauce. Melt the butter for the brown sauce in the small saucepan with the onion slice and cook until the onion is lightly browned, then lift it out. Keep stirring until the butter turns brown, add the flour, and stir until it is brown as well. Whisk in the beef stock a little at a time, bring to a boil, and boil for 2 minutes.
Drop the carrot strips and potato balls into boiling water with the salt for the cooking water. Lift out the carrots after 5 minutes and drain them; leave the potato balls 3 to 4 minutes longer, until just tender, and drain.
Fry the carrots with the chopped onion and bacon in the frying pan over medium heat until the bacon is cooked and the onion soft, about 5 minutes.
Take the casserole from the oven. Add the bacon mixture, the brown sauce, the potato balls and the sherry, and spoon the sauce around the chicken. Cover the casserole.
Bake for 25 to 35 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the thickest piece reads 165°F (74°C). Taste the sauce for salt and serve from the casserole.

Nutrition

610calories per serving

Recipe makes: 4 servings
Servings: 4

Estimated per serving from USDA FoodData Central values for Cornish game hen with skin, bacon, butter, flour, potato, carrot, beef broth and sherry.

Recipe notes

When adjusting quantities

Allow a casserole that holds the pieces in one layer. Farmer allows one chicken to each small casserole if you make individual dishes.

Notes

Quantities mentioned in these notes don’t change when you adjust the servings.

Farmer’s own Brown Sauce I is for one cup of stock; the amounts here are scaled up by a third to give her one and one-third cups. A carton of good chicken stock can replace the beef stock for a lighter sauce.

Farmer doesn’t say to cover the casserole. We cover it for the second bake, as she does for her Breslin chicken, so the pieces stay moist.

Scaling changes the ingredients only; pan sizes and cooking times need their own judgment. To adapt this recipe further, try the recipe tool at TuneMyRecipe (opens in a new tab), our sister site.