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Chicken a LA King

A creamy chicken dish with mushrooms, green pepper, and a butter‑flour sauce, served on toast or in shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Mushroom and chicken 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 a LA King

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a pan; add mushrooms and green pepper; cook uncovered until fairly dry.

Make the sauce

  1. In a separate pan, make a sauce by melting 2 tablespoons of butter, then whisk in flour, salt, and paprika.

  2. Gradually add milk and chicken stock, stirring until smooth.

  3. Remove from heat and stir in beaten egg yolks and lemon juice.

Combine and serve

  1. Add the cooked mushrooms, green pepper, and diced chicken; heat thoroughly.

  2. Serve on toast, in Swedish timbales, or in patty shells.

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. Mushroom + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,172 recipes

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

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Mushroom + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,580 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Mushroom + milktop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,231 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanal (fruit).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Enriches the sauce and cooks the mushrooms and pepper, carrying flavor and richness.
Flour
Thickens the butter and milk into a smooth, stable white sauce.
Egg yolks
Thicken the sauce gently and add richness and a smooth, velvety body.
Milk
Forms the body of the white sauce, giving it creaminess.
Mushrooms
Add earthy flavor and a meaty texture to the filling.
Chicken
Provides the main protein and substance of the dish.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks off the heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat and can scramble or curdle if the sauce is too hot. Removing the pan from the heat before stirring them in keeps the sauce smooth and creamy.

“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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