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Croquettes of Chicken

A fried patty made from cooked chicken, ham, parsley, and butter, coated in breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Croquettes of Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat.

  2. Stir in the flour until smooth, then add the stock and bring to a boil.

  3. Season with salt and pepper, then mix in the chopped chicken and ham.

  4. Transfer the mixture to a plate and let it cool.

Shape and coat

  1. Take a tablespoon of the mixture, shape it into a ball or bolster, and coat it in breadcrumbs.

  2. Dip each croquette in the beaten egg, then coat again in breadcrumbs.

Fry and serve

  1. Fry in hot oil until golden brown, then drain on paper towels.

  2. Serve on lace paper with fried parsley.

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

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

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parsley + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16,675 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Chicken + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,389 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the flavour and, with the flour, forms the base of the thick binding roux.
Flour
Thickens the stock into a paste that holds the chicken and ham together.
Chicken
Provides the main meaty filling that gives the croquette its body and flavour.
Ham
Adds salty, savoury flavour to the filling.
Egg
Binds the breadcrumb coating so it adheres and forms a crisp shell.

The step that matters

Cool the filling fully before shaping. A warm, soft mixture stays sticky and loses its shape, so the croquettes can burst or fall apart in the hot oil. Cooling lets the starch-thickened binding firm up enough to hold its form.

Swap the parsley

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

  1. Nutmegfits about as well
  2. Parsleythe original
  3. Thymefits about as well
  4. Tarragonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, ham, butter, flour, milk, 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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