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Chicken Croquettes

A fried patty of chicken, flour, stock, and milk, formed into croquettes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Heat the chicken fat in a saucepan until it boils.

  2. Add the flour and cook well, then slowly stir in the stock and milk.

  3. Stir until the mixture reaches a consistency similar to salad dressing.

  4. Season with salt and pepper, and add the minced chicken.

  5. Cook for five minutes, then transfer to a shallow pan to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Mold the mixture into croquettes, dip in egg batter, and roll in bread crumbs.

  2. Fry in deep fat 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 + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

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

  2. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

  4. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 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 milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 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

Flour
Thickens the stock and milk into a smooth, binding base for the croquettes.
Chicken fat
Carries the flavor and keeps the mixture rich and tender.
Stock
Adds liquid and savory flavor to the thickened base.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, softening the texture of the filling.
Minced chicken
Provides the main filling and meaty flavor.

The step that matters

Cook the flour and stock to a thick, smooth base. Flour must be cooked well so it thickens evenly and loses its raw taste. Stirring slowly keeps lumps from forming, and the mixture must be thick enough to hold its shape and cool firm before shaping.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, milk, pepper):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, milk, pepper. 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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