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Whole Chickens Curried

A curry of whole chickens simmered with pork, rice, and curry powder.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Whole Chickens Curried

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the chicken

  1. Place the whole chickens in a saucepan with pepper, salt, and pork pieces.

  2. Cover with cold water and bring to a boil.

  3. When the chickens are half cooked, add the rice and more water if needed.

  4. Continue boiling until the chickens are tender.

Serve

  1. Remove the chickens and place them on a serving dish.

  2. Mix the curry powder into the gravy and stir well.

  3. Pour the gravy over the chickens before serving.

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 + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Pork + ricetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Pepper + porktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,121 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole chickens
Provide the main protein, which becomes tender through long simmering in water.
Pork
Adds fat and savory flavor to the cooking liquid and gravy.
Rice
Added partway through to thicken the cooking liquid into a gravy as its starch releases.
Curry powder
Supplies the spice blend that gives the gravy its aroma and warm flavor.

The step that matters

Adding the rice at the halfway point. Rice added too early can break down and turn mushy before the chicken is tender, while adding it too late leaves the gravy thin. Its starch thickens the cooking liquid only as it softens, so timing it at the halfway point helps the gravy reach a good body.

“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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