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Fillets of Turkey with Rice

Fillets of turkey coated in egg and cracker crumbs, pan‑fried and served over butter‑cheese rice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Fillets of Turkey with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the turkey

  1. Skin the turkey breast and slice it into ½‑inch thick fillets.

  2. Dip each fillet in beaten egg, then in salted and peppered cracker crumbs, then again in egg and crumbs.

  3. Set the fillets on ice while cooking the rice.

Cook the rice

  1. In a saucepan, combine chicken or turkey stock, rice, onion juice, and salt; simmer until liquid is absorbed.

  2. When rice is tender, stir in butter and cheese; season to taste and cover.

Fry and serve

  1. Heat salad oil in a frying pan until boiling, then cook the fillets until golden brown.

  2. Mound the savory rice in the center of a hot dish and arrange the fillets around it.

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

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

  2. Turkey + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together688 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Butter + cheesetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Rice + oniontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Turkey
Forms the main protein; the thin fillets cook quickly and stay tender when fried.
Eggs
Bind the cracker crumbs to the fillets so the coating adheres during frying.
Cracker crumbs
Form a crisp, golden coating that browns when fried in oil.
Rice
Absorbs the stock and forms the soft, savory base the fillets are served with.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the finished rice.
Chicken or turkey stock
Supplies the liquid the rice absorbs, flavouring each grain as it cooks.

The step that matters

Frying the coated fillets in hot oil. The oil must be hot enough to brown the crumb coating quickly; if it is too cool, the coating absorbs excess oil and turns greasy before the turkey is cooked through.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (turkey, egg, chicken, rice, butter, cheese):

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against turkey, egg, chicken, rice, butter, cheese. 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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