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Chicken Croquettes

A fried, breaded chicken mixture formed into small shapes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken Croquettes

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chicken mixture

  1. Combine the chicken, cream, stock, and butter in a saucepan.

  2. Heat until boiling.

  3. Mix the cornstarch and flour with a little milk in a small bowl to create a slurry.

  4. Add the slurry to the boiling mixture to thicken it.

  5. Stir in the onion juice and egg yolks.

  6. Pour the mixture into a shallow pan.

  7. Let it cool overnight.

Shape and fry

  1. Cut the cooled mixture into shapes using a small biscuit cutter.

  2. Dip each piece in beaten egg.

  3. Coat each piece in cracker crumbs.

  4. Fry the coated pieces in hot oil 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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + oniontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together42,912 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

Butter and flour 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
Provides the main body and savory flavor of the croquettes.
Cream or milk
Adds moisture and richness to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the mixture so it sets firm enough to cut and coat.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling as it sets.
Flour
Works with cornstarch to thicken the filling and give it body.

The step that matters

Cool the mixture fully before cutting. The thickened filling must chill and set firmly; if it is cut while warm or soft, the pieces lose their shape and can fall apart when dipped and fried.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Leekfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, cream, egg, butter, flour. 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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