Name: Chicken, Tortilla and Lime Soup
Ingredients: 4 quarts chicken stock; Vegetable oil for deep-frying; 3 corn tortillas, cut into strips 2 inches long; 1 1/4 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts; 3 Tbs. olive oil; 1 large yellow onion, chopped; 2 Tbs. minced garlic; 2 to 3 tsp. finely minced jalapeño chili, with or; without seeds, to taste; 1 1/2 cups peeled, seeded and diced tomatoes; (fresh or canned); 6 Tbs. chopped fresh cilantro; 6 Tbs. fresh lime juice; 1 1/2 tsp. salt, or to taste; 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper; 12 paper-thin lime slices, cut into quarters

Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together15,539 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, corn, olive, garlic, tomato, lime, pepper):

Capsicumbetter flavor fit
Spinachbetter flavor fit
Okrabetter flavor fit
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, corn, olive, garlic, tomato, lime, pepper. 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, Tortilla and Lime Soup