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Five-Spice Chicken Breasts with Cherry-Madeira Sauce

Fragrant five-spice powder lends a wonderful layer of flavor to this chicken dish that’s simple enough for a weeknight dinner yet impressive enough for guests. Serve with creamy mascarpone polenta (see related recipe at left).

By williamssonoma · From Open Recipes · 13 ingredients
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Five-Spice Chicken Breasts with Cherry-Madeira Sauce

Why it works: Shallot and thyme match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,476 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Five-Spice Chicken Breasts with Cherry-Madeira Sauce

Serves 4.

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

490Calories
33 gProtein
29 gFat
26 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Cherry1 cup (138g)87
Shallot1 tbsp minced (10g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By williamssonoma. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Shallot + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,476 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Pepper + thymetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + shallottop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,898 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Chicken + thymetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together13,902 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

Swap the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, chicken, thyme, butter):

  1. Potatofits better
  2. Capsicumfits better
  3. Tomatofits about as well
  4. Shallotthe original

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