Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
Chicken a LA King
Ingredients
Directions
Make the sauce
Melt the butter in a saucepan.
Mix in the flour and blend well.
Add the milk and stir until smooth and creamy.
Finish and serve
Add the diced chicken, green pepper, and sliced mushrooms and heat the mixture.
Place the saucepan in a water bath filled with boiling water.
Stir in the sherry and mix well.
Serve.
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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,176 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,525 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
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Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,580 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Enriches the sauce and adds richness and flavour as it melts with the flour.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk into a smooth sauce that coats the other ingredients.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the sauce, which thickens as it heats with the flour.
- Cooked chicken
- Provides the main protein and substance of the dish.
- Mushrooms
- Adds earthy flavour and a soft, meaty texture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Add the milk and stir until smooth. Adding liquid to a flour and butter mixture all at once can form lumps. Constant stirring spreads the starch evenly so the sauce thickens smoothly.
“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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