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Chicken a LA King

A creamy chicken dish with green pepper, mushrooms, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Mix in the flour and blend well.

  3. Add the milk and stir until smooth and creamy.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the diced chicken, green pepper, and sliced mushrooms and heat the mixture.

  2. Place the saucepan in a water bath filled with boiling water.

  3. Stir in the sherry and mix well.

  4. Serve.

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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Mushroom + sherrytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,176 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-methylphenol (smoky, clove).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  5. Pepper + mushroomtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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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