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Chicken a LA King

A creamy chicken dish with mushrooms, peas, peppers, and pimento, cooked in a sauce of chicken fat, flour, and sherry wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By New Orleans Federation of Clubs · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and sherry work together. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 891 recipes. Both carry piperonal, which smells bitter, coconut. The science ↓

Chicken a LA King

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Boil the chicken until cooked.

  2. Remove the large white and dark pieces, cut into 2‑inch strips.

  3. Cut the green pepper into thin strips.

  4. Cut the pimento into small pieces.

  5. Drain the mushrooms and peas.

Make the sauce

  1. Heat 1/2 cup of the chicken fat in a skillet.

  2. Add 1/2 cup flour and stir until bubbling.

  3. Add 2 cups chicken soup and stir until thick and smooth.

  4. Season with salt, pepper, and paprika.

  5. Add the liquid from the mushrooms and stir.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

274Calories
38 gProtein
9 gFat
3 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Soupnot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By New Orleans Federation of Clubs. 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. See the original page.

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.

  1. Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together891 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  2. Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sherry + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,107 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  4. Wine + peppertop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,066 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Chicken + winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,496 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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 the substance of the dish.
Chicken fat
Carries the heat and adds richness to the flour mixture that thickens the sauce.
Chicken soup
Forms the liquid that the cooked flour mixture thickens into a smooth sauce.
Egg yolks
Enrich the sauce and add body and a richer texture.

The step that matters

Stirring the flour into the hot fat. Cooking the flour in the fat until bubbling removes its raw taste and coats the starch so it can thicken evenly. Stirring while adding the soup keeps lumps from forming, so the sauce stays smooth.

“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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