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Chicken À LA King

A creamy chicken dish with mushrooms, pimentos, and onions served over biscuits or toast.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 10 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 4,172 recipes mention both. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken À LA King

Serves 2

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Sauté the chicken cubes, onion, mushrooms, and pimentos in olive oil in a skillet.

  2. Combine the flour, salt, and pepper in a small bowl or cup.

Make the sauce

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter, stir in the flour mixture, and cook over medium heat for about a minute.

  2. Add the milk and stir until thickened.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the chicken and vegetable mixture to the sauce; stir together and cook a few more minutes.

  2. Serve over biscuits or toast.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Olive + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together4,571 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Olive + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together29,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Chicken breasts
Provides the main protein, which becomes tender when cooked gently in the sauce.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth sauce as it cooks.
Butter
Carries the flour for the roux and adds richness to the sauce.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats with the roux.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture to the filling.
Pimentos
Add sweetness, colour and mild aroma to the creamy filling.

The step that matters

Cooking the flour into the butter. Cooking the flour in melted butter for about a minute, before adding milk, removes raw starch taste and helps the sauce thicken smoothly without lumps.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, mushroom, pepper, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, mushroom, pepper, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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