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Chicken Croquettes

A fried dish of ground chicken mixed with onion, broth, spices, and egg, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. In a skillet, melt the butter and fry the chopped onion until soft.

  2. Add the chopped chicken, broth, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and egg yolks; stir to combine.

  3. Add the chopped mushrooms or oysters and mix well.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a dish and let it cool completely.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, take a tablespoon of the mixture and shape it into a sausage or pear shape.

  2. Dip each croquette in the beaten egg, then roll in bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in hot lard until golden brown.

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.

  1. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

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

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked chicken
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the croquettes their savory meaty flavor.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and help it set firmly when cooked, holding the shape.
Chicken broth
Adds moisture and flavor to the filling so it stays tender rather than dry.
Onion
Softened in butter, it adds sweetness and aroma to the filling.
Mushrooms or oysters
Add earthy umami flavor and extra moisture to the filling.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer coating that browns when fried.

The step that matters

Cooling the filling completely before shaping. A warm, soft filling is too loose to hold its shape and can burst or spread in the hot lard. Chilling firms the mixture so each croquette keeps its form and fries evenly.

Swap the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, onion, butter, pepper, egg, mushroom, bread):

  1. Garlicfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, butter, pepper, egg, mushroom, bread. 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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