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 ↓
Curried Dishes
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the meat
Boil the meat until tender.
Separate the joints.
Stew
Melt the butter.
Add the meat to the pan.
Pour in enough cooking liquid to cover the meat.
Let it stew for 20 minutes.
In a bowl, mix the curry powder, boiled rice, flour, melted butter, cooking liquid, and salt.
Pour the mixture over the meat.
Let it stew for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve
Serve with boiled rice as an accompaniment.
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.
-
Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Chicken + meattop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,449 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
-
Meat + ricetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,481 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
-
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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 or veal
- Provides the main meat, which becomes tender through boiling and then stewing.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice flavour that defines the dish.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking liquid into a sauce.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the stewed sauce.
- Cooking liquid from boiled meat
- Provides moisture and meaty flavour for the sauce.
The step that matters
Adding the mixture to the meat. The flour and rice mixture must be stirred smoothly into the liquid before it is poured over the meat, otherwise lumps form and the sauce thickens unevenly.
“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.
More chicken curry recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipes
Rice Fritters84 recipes