Name: Chicken and Sausage Orzo Pasta
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients: 6 bone-in chicken thighs with skin; 1 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon ground black pepper; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 pound linguica sausage, sliced; 1/2 onion, chopped; 1 tablespoon paprika; 1 tablespoon ground cumin; 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence; 1 bay leaf; 1 teaspoon fresh parsley, chopped; 4 cups chicken stock, or as needed; 2 tablespoons olive oil; 1 red bell pepper, chopped; 1 mildly hot green pepper, such as a chilaca, chopped; 8 ounces uncooked orzo pasta

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Cumin + parsleytop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together821 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Cumin + pastatop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together56 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Parsley + pastatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together732 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Olive + pastatop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,227 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, olive, cumin, parsley, pasta):

Spinachfits better
Capsicumfits better
Eggplantfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, olive, cumin, parsley, pasta. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Pasta	1 cup cooked (140g)	220
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chicken and Sausage Orzo Pasta