Why it works: Chicken and rice 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 ↓
Curry Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the chicken into pieces and wash it well.
Place the chicken in a stew-pan and cover with water; boil until tender.
Add salt and cook for a few more minutes.
Remove the chicken and set aside; pour the cooking liquid into a bowl.
Chop the onions.
Make the curry
Fry the onions in butter until brown, then remove the onions.
Add the chicken back to the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Sprinkle curry powder over the chicken and pour in the reserved cooking liquid.
Stir well and simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix sifted flour with a little water and stir into the curry.
Stir in the beaten egg yolk and serve with hot boiled rice.
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.
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
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; boiling makes it tender before it is fried and simmered in the curry.
- Onions
- Frying until brown builds sweetness and savoury depth as the base of the sauce.
- Butter
- Carries the curry powder and onions, adding fat and richness to the frying stage.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spiced aroma and flavour that defines the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it is stirred in and simmered.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the sauce and adds body and a silky texture as it is stirred in.
The step that matters
Stir in the flour mixture before the egg yolk. Flour must be smoothed in a little water first so it does not clump, then simmered so its starch thickens the sauce. Egg yolk added to a very hot sauce can scramble, so it should be stirred in gently at the end.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, butter, flour, rice):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, butter, flour, rice. 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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