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Chicken Croquettes

A fried croquette made with boiled chicken, mushrooms, cream, and flour, coated in egg and cracker crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Boil the chicken until cooked.

  2. Let the chicken cool.

  3. Remove the meat from the bones.

  4. Cut the meat into small pieces.

  5. Chop the mushrooms.

Make the filling

  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour, cream, and stock.

  3. Cook the mixture for about 2 minutes.

  4. Remove the mixture from heat.

  5. Add the chicken and mushrooms.

  6. Mix well.

  7. Spread the mixture on a dish.

  8. Let the mixture cool.

  9. Shape the mixture into desired forms.

Coat and fry

  1. Dip each croquette in beaten egg.

  2. Coat each croquette with cracker crumbs.

  3. Fry the croquettes in boiling hot lard until golden brown.

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. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  2. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,525 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

  4. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Provides the main protein and bulk of the filling.
Butter
Enriches the flavor and adds richness to the sauce base.
Flour
Thickens the cream and stock into a binding sauce that holds the filling together.
Sweet cream
Adds moisture and richness, making the filling creamy and tender.
Chicken stock
Adds moisture and savory flavor to the thickened sauce.
Mushrooms
Adds earthy flavor and moisture to the filling.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool before shaping. A warm, loose filling is too soft to hold its shape and can burst or leak when coated and fried. Chilling firms the starch-thickened sauce so the croquettes keep their form in the hot lard.

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, nutmeg, flour, chicken, lemon, mushroom):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Marjoramfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, nutmeg, flour, chicken, lemon, mushroom. 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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