Name: Classic French Chicken in White Wine Sauce
Ingredients: 2 Tbs. butter; 4-lb. chicken, cut into 6 pieces (or 3-1/2 to 4 lb. chicken pieces); Salt and freshly ground black pepper; 1 medium onion, finely chopped; 1 medium carrot, finely chopped; 1/2 rib celery, finely chopped; 2 oz. prosciutto or country ham, finely chopped; 3/4 cup dry white wine; 3/4 cup homemade or low-salt canned chicken broth (I use Swanson’s Organic Chicken Broth); 3 Tbs. heavy cream (at room temperature); Chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together14,555 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together21,601 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,518 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Swap the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, chicken, pepper, onion, carrot, prosciutto, white wine):

Thymefits better
Garlicfits better
Parsleyfits better
Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, chicken, pepper, onion, carrot, prosciutto, white wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Cream	1 tbsp (15ml) heavy	51
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Classic French Chicken in White Wine Sauce