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Chicken Cutlets

Chicken cutlets made with finely chopped chicken, white sauce, and breadcrumbs, then fried until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,019 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chicken Cutlets

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken mixture

  1. Fry the shallot and flour in the butter over low heat without browning.

  2. Add the white sauce and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in the chopped chicken, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, and heat until hot.

  4. Add the egg yolks and cook for 2-3 minutes longer.

  5. Cool the mixture until firm, then shape into cutlets.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each cutlet in the beaten egg and coat with breadcrumbs.

  2. Fry the cutlets in deep fat until golden brown.

Serve

  1. Drain well, arrange on a dish, garnish with fried parsley, and serve hot.

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. Shallot + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Flour + shallottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,081 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Shallot + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 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

Chicken
Forms the bulk of the cutlet and gives it its savoury flavour and body.
White sauce
Binds the chicken into a moist mixture that holds its shape when cooled.
Egg yolks
Enrich the mixture and help it set firm when cooked and cooled.
Butter
Adds fat and richness and carries the flavour of the shallot and flour.
Flour
Thickens the butter and shallot base, helping the sauce become cohesive.
Beaten egg
Acts as the glue that helps breadcrumbs adhere to the cutlet surface.

The step that matters

Cooking the shallot and flour without browning. Frying over low heat keeps the shallot and flour pale, so the base stays mild and smooth rather than tasting scorched or bitter.

Swap the nutmeg

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

  1. Capersfits better
  2. Tarragonfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, butter, flour, egg, shallot, 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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