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Curry of Chicken

A curry made with chicken fillets, onions, carrots, apples, and chutneys, served over rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

Curry of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Fry the base

  1. Melt the butter in a frying pan and add the chicken fillets, onions, and carrots.

  2. Fry for 15 minutes, ensuring the onions do not burn.

Stew and strain

  1. Transfer the mixture to a stew pan and add the consomme and apples.

  2. Stew until tender.

  3. Strain the mixture, placing the fillets on a dish.

  4. Pass the vegetables (excluding the carrots) through a fine sieve.

Make the sauce and serve

  1. Stir the brown roux into the strained stock and bring to a boil.

  2. Return the fillets, onions, and apples to the pan.

  3. Add the Madras chutney and sweet chutney, seasoning with salt and sugar.

  4. Simmer for 20 minutes.

  5. Serve with boiled rice on the side.

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 + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

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

  3. Carrot + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,477 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 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 fillets
Provides the main protein, which firms and turns opaque as it cooks through.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook, adding body to the sauce once passed through the sieve.
Apples
Stew until tender, adding natural sweetness and a soft, pulpy texture to the sauce.
Brown roux
Flour and fat cooked together, thickening the stock into a smooth, glossy sauce.
Consomme
Forms the liquid base of the dish, carrying the flavour of the other ingredients.
Madras chutney
Adds heat and spice, with acidity and sweetness that round out the curry sauce.

The step that matters

Stirring the brown roux into the stock. Roux thickens best when its starch is dispersed evenly in hot liquid. Adding it to boiling stock without stirring can cause lumps, so stir steadily as it is added and then bring to a boil.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, onion, carrot, sugar, rice):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, onion, carrot, sugar, rice. 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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