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Amy's Spicy Nyonya Chicken

This is a simple South-East Asian chicken curry, rich and fragrant with spices. The person who introduced me to this dish, Amy, says she often stirs in a little lime juice and coconut milk at the end to ‘wake up the curry’.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Shallot and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,000 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Amy's Spicy Nyonya Chicken

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

496Calories
57 gProtein
18 gFat
29 gCarbs

Counts 9 of 10 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 9 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Shrimp100g cooked99
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Lemongrass1 tbsp (6g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot in our table0

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

By bbcfood. 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 + garlictop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Shallot + limetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together258 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Garlic + limetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,411 recipes

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

  4. Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,850 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Garlic + shrimptop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,743 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

Swap the lime

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (shallot, garlic, shrimp, chicken, sugar):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Limethe original
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against shallot, garlic, shrimp, chicken, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.