Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Chicken Curry
Ingredients
Directions
Poach the chicken
In a stewpan, cover the chicken with water and boil until tender.
Add salt and cook for a few more minutes.
Remove the chicken and set aside the broth.
Make the curry
In the same stewpan, fry chopped onions in butter until brown, then remove the onions.
Add the chicken to the stewpan and fry for 3-4 minutes.
Sprinkle curry powder over the chicken.
Pour in the reserved broth, stir well, and simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix flour with a little water and stir into the curry.
Finally, stir in the beaten egg yolk and serve with hot boiled rice.
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.
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Onion + buttertop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together42,912 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Flour and butter 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
- Chicken
- Provides the main protein, which becomes tender as it is boiled and then fried.
- Butter
- Carries the frying of the onions and chicken, adding richness and browning.
- Flour
- Thickens the broth into the curry sauce as it is stirred in.
- Egg yolk
- Enriches and thickens the sauce when stirred in at the end.
- Curry powder
- Supplies the spice and aroma that define the curry flavour.
- Onions
- Browned in butter to build a sweet, savoury base for the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring in the beaten egg yolk. Egg yolk thickens when heated gently but can curdle and turn grainy if the curry is boiling. Stir it in off the heat or at a low simmer, and keep stirring.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, egg, butter, rice):
- Asparagusfits better
- Leekfits better
- Potatofits better
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, egg, butter, rice. 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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