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Chicken Croquettes

A fried chicken croquette made with a creamy sauce and breadcrumb coating.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Parsley and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the chicken, remove the skin, and chop it finely.

  2. In a saucepan, melt the butter, then stir in the flour until smooth.

  3. Add the milk, nutmeg, parsley, pepper, salt, and cayenne; cook until thickened.

  4. Mix the chopped chicken into the sauce and set aside to cool.

Shape and fry

  1. Once cool, shape the mixture into croquettes.

  2. Dip each croquette in egg, then coat with bread crumbs.

  3. Fry in hot fat until golden brown.

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. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  2. Nutmeg + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,062 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

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

  4. Nutmeg + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Forms the main body of the filling, giving the croquettes their substance and savory flavor.
Butter
Provides fat for the roux, carrying flavor and keeping the sauce smooth.
Flour
Thickens the milk into a sauce that binds the chicken and holds the croquettes' shape.
Milk
Liquid that, with the flour, forms a thick white sauce that makes the filling creamy.
Egg
Coats the croquettes so the bread crumbs adhere and the outside sets and browns when fried.
Bread crumbs
Form a crisp, golden outer crust during frying.

The step that matters

Cool the filling fully before shaping. A warm, loose sauce cannot hold its shape and will break or leak in the hot fat. Chilling firms the starch-thickened mixture so the croquettes keep their form and fry evenly.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, pepper, egg):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Marjoramfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, milk, nutmeg, pepper, egg. 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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