Name: Chicken Croquettes a l'Italienne
Ingredients: meat of 1 large chicken, cut into small squares; ½ cup mushrooms, chopped; 1 shallot, chopped; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 cup broth; 2 egg yolks

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 ↓

Chicken Croquettes a l'Italienne

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

In a pan, melt butter and add flour to create a roux.
Gradually stir in the broth to make a thick sauce.
Add chicken, mushrooms, and egg yolks to the sauce and mix well.
Allow the mixture to cool, then shape it into pear shapes or rolls.

Fry and serve

Bread the shaped croquettes and fry them in hot oil until golden brown.
Drain on paper towels and serve with Italian sauce.

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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Mushroom + shallottop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,982 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,081 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

Flour: Forms a roux with the butter that thickens the broth into a sauce.
Butter: Enriches the roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Egg yolks: Add richness and help bind the filling so the croquettes hold their shape.
Broth: Liquid that, thickened with the roux, forms the body of the filling.
Chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the filling.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture before shaping. A warm, loose filling is too soft to hold its shape and can burst or leak in hot oil. Cooling lets the starch-thickened sauce firm up so the croquettes keep their form while frying.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, chicken, mushroom, butter, flour, egg):

Shallotthe original
Asparagusfits about as well
Potatofits about as well
Leekfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, chicken, mushroom, butter, flour, egg. 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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Chicken Soup156 recipes

Creamed Chicken89 recipes

Chicken Panada75 recipes

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Chicken Croquettes a l'Italienne