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Meyer Lemon Chicken

Chicken breasts with a Meyer lemon and garlic pan sauce.

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Why it works: Chicken and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 5,091 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 3
Prep5 min
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Pat the chicken breasts dry and pound them to an even thickness. Season both sides with the salt, pepper and dried rosemary.

  2. Spread the flour on a plate and dredge each breast, shaking off the excess.

  3. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken 4 to 5 minutes per side until golden, then transfer to a plate.

  4. Reduce the heat to medium and add the butter and minced garlic. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant.

  5. Pour in the chicken broth, scraping up the browned bits. Squeeze in the juice of both Meyer lemons and grate in some zest.

  6. Return the chicken to the pan, cover, and simmer 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Spoon the sauce over the chicken and serve.

By tastykitchen. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Chicken + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,091 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  2. Rosemary + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together845 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together27,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Rosemary + olivetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,489 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the garlic

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, rosemary, flour, butter, olive, lemon):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Basilbetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Garlicthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, rosemary, flour, butter, olive, lemon. 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).