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 Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut the chicken into pieces as for fricassee.
Wash the chicken pieces well.
Place the chicken in a stew-pan and cover the pan with water.
Boil the covered chicken until tender.
Add salt to the pot and cook for a few more minutes.
Remove the chicken from the pot and set aside the cooking liquid.
Make the curry
Chop the onions.
Fry the onions in butter until brown.
Remove the onions.
Add the chicken to the pan.
Fry the chicken for 3-4 minutes.
Sprinkle curry powder over the chicken.
Pour the reserved cooking liquid over the chicken and stir well.
Stew for 5 more minutes.
Mix flour with a little water and stir the mixture into the stew.
Stir in the beaten egg yolk.
Serve
Serve with hot boiled rice.
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.
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Butter and flour 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
- Provides the main protein; boiling until tender keeps the meat moist and soft.
- Butter
- Fat that carries the onion flavour and helps the onions brown.
- Onions
- Frying until brown builds sweetness and a savoury base for the sauce.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice aroma and flavour that define the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a stew with body.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce, giving it a smoother, richer texture.
The step that matters
Stirring the egg yolk into the stew. Egg yolk thickens when heated but can scramble and curdle if the stew is boiling hard. Keep the heat low and stir steadily once it is added.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, butter, flour, rice):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, butter, flour, 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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