Name: Parmesan Chicken Pasta
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 25 min
Yield: 2
Ingredients: 3 cups Penne; 1 whole Chicken Breast, Cut Into Cubes; ½ whole Yellow Onion, Diced; ¼ cups Olive Oil (can Substitute Vegetable Oil); 1-½ Tablespoon Butter; 1 Tablespoon Garlic, Minced; ⅛ cups Dry White Wine (optional); 2 Tablespoons Flour; 1 cup Heavy Cream Or Half-and-Half; ¾ cups Parmesan Cheese, Grated; 1 pinch Salt And Pepper, to taste

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).
Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together10,850 recipes

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

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Onion + olivetop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together29,779 recipes

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

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, olive, butter, garlic, white wine, flour, cream):

Onionthe original
Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
Chiveabout as good a flavor fit
Spinachabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, butter, garlic, white wine, flour, cream. 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).

Parmesan Chicken Pasta