Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Croquettes of Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Make the filling
Remove bones, skin, and gristle from the chicken.
In a skillet, melt the butter and fry the minced onion until pale.
Add the chopped chicken and ham to the skillet and fry for a few minutes.
In a separate pot, boil ½ pint of stock or water.
Stir in the flour and cook for 10 minutes.
Add the chicken mixture to the pot and cook for another 5 minutes.
Season with salt and pepper.
Stir in the beaten egg and heat until thoroughly hot.
Shape and cool
Transfer the mixture to a plate and let it cool.
Shape the cooled mixture into cutlets, balls, or corks.
Coat and fry
Brush with beaten egg and cover with breadcrumbs.
Fry in hot oil until golden.
Drain on cloth or paper.
Garnish with fried parsley and serve.
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.
-
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together68,474 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Chicken + hamtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,497 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
-
Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter 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
- Cooked chicken
- Forms the bulk of the croquette and gives it its main savoury flavour.
- Flour
- Thickens the mixture so it holds its shape when cooled and shaped.
- Egg
- Binds the mixture and, brushed on the outside, helps breadcrumbs stick.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness and softens the onion for flavour.
- Ham or bacon
- Adds salty, savoury flavour that carries through the chicken filling.
- Breadcrumbs
- Form a crisp, golden coating when fried in hot oil.
The step that matters
Cooling the mixture before shaping. The flour-thickened mixture must be cool and firm enough to hold its shape; shaping it warm makes it soft and sticky, so the croquettes can break or lose their form in the hot oil.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, ham, egg, butter, pepper):
- Asparagusfits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Leekfits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, ham, egg, butter, 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.
More chicken croquettes recipes
You might also like
Chicken Broth257 recipes
Chicken Soup156 recipes
Creamed Chicken89 recipes
Chicken Panada75 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.