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A chicken curry simmered in coconut milk and broth, flavored with shallot, bay leaf, chutney, sweet‑acid, and optional almond or ginger.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,093 recipes. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

Our Curries

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gravy

  1. Combine coconut milk and broth in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer for 15 minutes to create a thick curry gravy.

Brown and marinate the chicken

  1. Melt butter or suet in a frying pan.

  2. Add chopped shallot and fry for 2 minutes.

  3. Add chicken pieces to the frying pan and lightly fry until slightly colored.

  4. Transfer chicken to the saucepan with curry gravy and let marinate for at least 30 minutes.

Simmer and finish

  1. Place the saucepan over gentle heat.

  2. If the liquid doesn't cover the chicken, add stock or water.

  3. Simmer gently, adding bay leaf, chutney, and sweet-acid.

  4. Adjust seasoning as needed.

  5. Once chicken is tender, stir in another ½ cup of coconut milk and cook for 3 more minutes.

  6. For a semi-dry curry, reduce gravy by simmering with the lid off, stirring frequently.

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. Coconut + almondtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Shallot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together75 recipes

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

  3. Coconut + gingertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Shallot + gingertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Coconut milk
Forms the creamy base of the gravy and adds richness and body.
Broth
Provides the liquid that simmers down into the curry gravy.
Butter or clarified beef suet
Adds fat for frying the shallot and chicken, carrying flavor and aiding light browning.
Shallot
Adds mild sweetness and aromatic depth as it softens in the fat.
Chicken pieces
The main protein, which firms as it cooks and absorbs the gravy during marinating.

The step that matters

Simmer gently after adding the chicken. Gentle heat keeps the chicken tender and prevents the coconut milk from separating or turning grainy, while the gravy thickens slowly.

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (coconut, milk, butter, chicken, almond, ginger):

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Shallotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against coconut, milk, butter, chicken, almond, ginger. 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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