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Chicken Curry

A spiced chicken stew cooked in ghee and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Chicken Curry

Why it works: Turmeric and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,776 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Chicken Curry

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken into 16-18 pieces.

  2. Warm a pot and melt the ghee until it bubbles.

Cook the curry

  1. Add all the ground condiments and stir until brown.

  2. Add the chicken pieces and salt, stirring until light brown.

  3. Pour in the water and simmer over low heat until the chicken is tender and the liquid reduces by half, about 30-45 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Turmeric + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Ginger + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

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

  4. Turmeric + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,253 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Garlic + coriandertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,474 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken (in the method)
Provides the protein; becomes tender as it simmers slowly in the liquid.
Ghee
Carries the spices' flavour and adds richness and fat to the sauce.
Ground onions
Adds body and sweetness as they brown, thickening the sauce slightly.
Ground turmeric
Adds earthy colour and a warm, bitter note to the curry.
Ground chilies
Adds heat and a pungent, warming flavour to the sauce.

The step that matters

Browning the ground condiments. Stirring the spices and onions in hot ghee until they brown toasts them and deepens flavour. Burning them makes the curry bitter, while under-browning leaves a raw, dusty taste.

Swap the coriander

The recipe marks coriander as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (ghee, onion, turmeric, ginger, garlic):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Corianderthe original
  4. Clovefits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against ghee, onion, turmeric, ginger, garlic. 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 curry recipes

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