Skip to main content

Spicy Almond Chicken

"This has just the right amount of spices. It's tangy, beautiful and delicious."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Chicken and almond work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and 838 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-methylbutanol, which smells malty, whiskey. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep15 min
Cook40 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, tree nuts (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. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Melt the butter and brush it over the bottom and sides of a 9x13-inch baking dish.

  2. Arrange the chicken pieces skin side up in the dish in a single layer. Bake for 20 minutes.

  3. While the chicken bakes, combine the red currant jelly, yellow mustard, brown sugar, lemon juice and ground cinnamon in a saucepan. Heat over medium, stirring, until the jelly melts and the sauce is smooth, about 5 minutes.

  4. Brush the chicken with half of the sauce and bake for 12 minutes more.

  5. Toast the slivered almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat for 3 to 4 minutes, stirring often, until golden. Set aside.

  6. Brush the chicken with the remaining sauce and bake for 8 to 10 minutes more, until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C).

  7. Sprinkle the toasted almonds over the chicken and spoon the pan juices over the top before serving.

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. Chicken + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together838 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methylbutanol (malty, whiskey).

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

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

  5. Butter + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,198 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

Flavor stand-ins for the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, chicken, mustard, almond, sugar, lemon, cinnamon):

  1. Orangebetter flavor fit
  2. Coconutbetter flavor fit
  3. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, chicken, mustard, almond, sugar, lemon, cinnamon. 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).