Name: Chicken in Pipérade
Yield: Serves 6.
Ingredients: 4 lb. whole chicken legs; Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste; 3 Tbs. olive oil; 1 large red onion, cut into slices 1/4 inch thick; 6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced; 3 Tbs. all-purpose flour; 1 tsp. pimentón; 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes; 1 cup chicken broth; 1 Tbs. chicken demi-glace; 1/4 cup pitted Picholine olives; 1 Tbs. sherry vinegar; 2 large red bell peppers, seeded and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick; 2 large yellow bell peppers, seeded and cut into slices 1/4 inch thick; 1/4 cup finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; Cooked egg noodles for serving

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 + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together27,090 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 (chicken, pepper, olive, onion, garlic, flour, sherry):

Thymebetter flavor fit
Cuminbetter flavor fit
Parsleybetter flavor fit
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, olive, onion, garlic, flour, sherry. 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 in Pipérade