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Chicken Croquettes

A fried croquette made from finely chopped boiled chicken and brains, mixed with parsley, nutmeg, onion, lemon, spices, and cream, coated in egg and crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,037 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mixture

  1. Chop the boiled chicken and brains very finely.

  2. Mix the chicken, brains, parsley, nutmeg, onion, lemon juice, lemon rind, salt, black pepper, and red pepper together.

  3. Add cream until the mixture is moist enough for molding.

Shape and fry

  1. Shape the mixture into pear shapes.

  2. Dip each croquette into beaten egg, then roll in cracker dust or bread crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in boiling 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. Parsley + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,037 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  4. Parsley + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Boiled chicken
Forms the main body of the croquettes and gives them a meaty, savory filling.
Boiled brains
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the filling.
Cream
Adds moisture so the mixture holds together when shaped.
Beaten egg
Binds the crumb coating to the croquette and helps it stick during frying.
Cracker dust or bread crumbs
Forms a crisp outer crust that browns when fried.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the savory filling.

The step that matters

Fry the croquettes in boiling lard until golden brown. The lard must be hot enough to crisp the crumb coating quickly. If the fat is too cool, the croquettes soak up grease and the coating can fall off or turn soggy before it browns.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, parsley, nutmeg, lemon, pepper, cream, egg):

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Leekfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, parsley, nutmeg, lemon, pepper, cream, 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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