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 the chicken
Cut up the chicken and wash it well.
Place it in a stewpan and cover with water.
Boil, covered, until tender.
Add the salt and cook for a few more minutes.
Remove the chicken and set aside the cooking liquid.
Make the curry
Chop the onions and fry them in the butter until brown.
Remove the onions and add the chicken to the pan.
Fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes, then sprinkle with curry powder.
Pour in the reserved cooking liquid and stir well.
Stew for 5 minutes.
Stir in the flour mixed with a little water.
Finally, add the beaten egg yolk and mix until combined.
Serve
Serve the curry in the center of a platter with hot boiled rice arranged around it.
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 and body of the dish as it cooks in the liquid.
- Butter
- Carries the curry powder's aroma and adds richness while the onions brown.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the dominant spice aroma and flavor of the curry.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce as it stews.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and further thickens the sauce, giving it a smoother, richer texture.
The step that matters
Adding the beaten egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated, so it can curdle or turn grainy if the sauce is boiling hard. Stir it in off strong heat and keep the mixture below a simmer.
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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