Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓
Curried Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Cover the chicken with cold, weak broth or water.
Stew slowly until tender.
Make the gravy
If using water, cook the pork and onion in it until you have 1 pint of liquid.
Strain and cool the liquid before pouring it over the chicken.
Ten minutes before serving, stir in the curry powder mixed with cold water and simmer gently.
Serve
Serve the chicken on a hot dish and pour the gravy over it.
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.
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Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,417 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together18,214 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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, which becomes tender through slow stewing.
- Fat salt pork
- Adds fat and savoury flavour to the liquid as it cooks with the onion.
- Onion
- Adds sweetness and aroma to the gravy as it softens in the liquid.
- Curry powder
- Provides the spice aroma and flavour that defines the gravy.
The step that matters
Stir in the curry powder mixed with cold water. Mixing curry powder with cold water before adding it helps it disperse evenly without lumps. Simmering it gently, rather than boiling hard, keeps the spice aroma fresh and avoids a bitter, scorched taste.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pork):
- Potatofits better
- Capsicumfits about as well
- Tomatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pork. 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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