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Chicken Croquettes

Chicken croquettes are fried balls of chicken and cream mixture coated in beaten eggs and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Chop one large roasted chicken or two small ones finely.

  2. Melt a piece of fresh butter (two ounces).

  3. Stir in two full tablespoonfuls flour, one pint cream, and season with pepper and salt.

  4. Let the mixture boil until thick as custard.

  5. Remove from heat and stir in enough chicken to make it thick enough when cold to form balls.

  6. Stir the yolk of an egg into the mixture.

Shape and coat

  1. Place the mixture in a dish to cool.

  2. When cold, shape the mixture into balls.

  3. If the mixture is not thick enough when cold, add more chicken to the batter.

  4. Dip each ball into a batter of two or three beaten eggs.

  5. Roll the balls in bread crumbs.

Fry

  1. Fry the balls in hot lard.

  2. Optionally, use sweetbreads instead of all chicken.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

857Calories
51 gProtein
27 gFat
98 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chicken100g cooked165
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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 Towanda, Pa. Christ church. Young ladies society. [from old catalog]. 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

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

  4. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

Flour and butter 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
Forms the bulk and meaty filling of the croquettes.
Cream
Makes a rich, thick base that binds the chicken together.
Flour
Thickens the cream as its starch sets, giving the mixture enough body to shape.
Butter
Adds richness and flavor to the base before the flour is stirred in.
Eggs
Egg yolk enriches the mixture, and beaten egg helps the crumbs adhere.

The step that matters

Cook the base until thick and let it cool fully before shaping. Flour starch swells and thickens when boiled, then firms further as it cools. If the mixture is too loose when cold, the balls will not hold their shape and may break apart during frying.

“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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