Name: Chicken, Broccoli and Mushroom Stir-Fry
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 1 pound Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast, Trimmed Of Fat And Cut Into ¾" Pieces; ¼ cups All-purpose Flour; 1 cup Chicken Broth; ¼ cups Honey; ¼ cups Soy Sauce; ½ Tablespoons Fresh Ginger, Peeled And Grated; 2 cloves (Medium-size) Garlic Cloves, Grated; 2 teaspoons Sesame Oil (optional); 2 Tablespoons Cooking Oil (I Used Extra Light Olive Oil); 6 cups Broccoli Florets (small, Bite-sized Florets); 1 Small Onion, Sliced; ¾ pounds White Button Mushrooms, Sliced

Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,038 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Garlic + sesametop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Ginger + garlictop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,402 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 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 sesame

The recipe marks sesame as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, honey, sauce, ginger, clove, garlic):

Cashew nutfits better
Chickpeafits about as well
Sesamethe original
Lentilsfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, honey, sauce, ginger, clove, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Broccoli	1 cup chopped (156g)	55
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2

Chicken, Broccoli and Mushroom Stir-Fry