Name: Chicken Tortilla Soup
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 20 min
Yield: 4+
Ingredients: 2 Tb. olive oil; 1 small onion, chopped; 2/3 cup fresh cilantro, chopped; 3 cloves minced garlic; 1 14 ½ oz. cans diced tomatoes; 4 cups chicken broth; ¾ Tb. cumin; ½ Tb. chili powder; ¼ tsp. cayenne pepper; 1-2 bay leaves; 2 carrots, thinly sliced; 2 skinless chicken breasts, halved and thinly sliced; ¾ tsp. salt; Pepper to taste; 1 ½ cups shredded Monterey jack or cheddar cheese; 1-2 avocados, diced; Bag of tortilla chips

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 29,058 recipes mention both. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Garlic + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together5,082 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Tomato + cumintop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,272 recipes

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

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

Flavor stand-ins for the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, onion, garlic, tomato, chicken, cumin, pepper):

Oreganobetter flavor fit
Corianderbetter flavor fit
Thymebetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, onion, garlic, tomato, chicken, cumin, pepper. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

Chicken Tortilla Soup