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Moo Goo Gai Pan

"This Chinese dish translates to chicken with sliced mushrooms. This dish is great, light and very flavorful."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Broccoli and bamboo shoots share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and 21 recipes mention both. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

The recipe

3 servings
Prep25 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: wheat, tree nuts, soy, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Drain the bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and straw mushrooms. Cut the chicken into thin strips if needed, and mince the garlic. Set everything aside near the stove.

  2. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch, sugar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, rice wine and chicken broth until smooth. Set the sauce aside.

  3. Heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil in a wok or large skillet over high heat. Add the chicken strips and stir-fry about 4 minutes until cooked through and reaching 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part. Transfer to a plate.

  4. Add the second tablespoon of vegetable oil to the same wok over high heat. Add the sliced fresh mushrooms and broccoli florets and stir-fry for 3 minutes.

  5. Add the minced garlic, drained bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and straw mushrooms. Stir-fry for 1 minute until heated through.

  6. Return the chicken to the wok. Stir the sauce well, pour it in, and stir-fry 1 to 2 minutes until the sauce thickens and turns glossy. Serve hot.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Broccoli + bamboo shootstop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Bamboo shoots + water chestnuttop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Mushroom + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,171 recipes

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

  4. Broccoli + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,072 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Garlic + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the broccoli

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, bamboo shoots, water chestnut, garlic, chicken, sugar, sauce):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Welsh onionabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Onionabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Broccolithe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, bamboo shoots, water chestnut, garlic, chicken, sugar, sauce. 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).