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 ↓
Chicken Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cut the chicken into pieces as for fricassee and wash it well.
Place the chicken in a stewpan, cover with water, and boil covered until tender.
Add the salt and cook for a few more minutes.
Remove the chicken and set it aside.
Pour the cooking liquid into a bowl.
Make the curry
Chop the onions.
Fry the onions in the butter until brown.
Remove the onions from the pan.
Add the chicken back to the pan and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Sprinkle the curry powder over the chicken.
Pour the reserved cooking liquid over the chicken.
Stir the mixture well.
Stew for 5 minutes.
Mix the flour with a little water.
Stir the flour mixture into the stew.
Stir in the beaten egg yolk.
Serve
Serve with hot boiled rice around the chicken.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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 and is simmered until tender, then browned and stewed in the sauce.
- Butter
- Fat that fries the onions to a brown colour and adds richness to the sauce.
- Onions
- Soften and brown in butter, building sweetness and savoury base flavour for the sauce.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice blend that gives the dish its characteristic aroma and flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a stew-like sauce.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches the sauce, adding richness and body as it is stirred in.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg yolk. Egg yolk can curdle or scramble if it meets very hot liquid too quickly. Stirring the sauce off the heat or with the heat reduced helps it blend smoothly and thicken gently.
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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