Why it works: Potato and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,756 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-decenal, which smells green, must. The science ↓
Chicken Croquettes
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
In a bowl, combine the mashed potatoes, butter, beaten egg yolks, salt, and pepper.
Heat the mixture on the stove until warm, stirring continuously.
Finely chop the cold chicken and season to taste.
Shape and cook
Take a portion of the potato mixture and form it into an oval shape in your palm.
Place a teaspoon of chicken in the center and roll the potato around it to enclose the filling.
Fry the croquettes in hot butter until golden brown.
Alternatively, bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes and serve hot.
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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Potato + chickentop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,756 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).
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Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,305 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,456 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Mashed potatoes
- Forms the soft outer shell that holds the filling together.
- Cooked chicken
- Provides the savory filling that is enclosed inside the potato.
- Eggs
- Bind the potato mixture so the croquettes hold their shape.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the outside brown when fried.
The step that matters
Enclosing the filling. The potato must fully cover the chicken with no gaps. Any opening lets filling leak out during frying or baking, and the croquette can lose its shape.
Swap the potato
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, egg, chicken, pepper):
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Potatothe original
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Spinachfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, chicken, pepper. 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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