Name: Chicken À LA Winegrower
Ingredients: 2 slices bacon, diced; 2 cloves garlic, halved; 1 tablespoon butter or margarine; 4 chicken quarters; 1 cup chopped onion; 1/2 cup dry white wine, divided; 1 4-ounce can sliced mushrooms, undrained; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley; 2 tablespoons chopped chives; 1 bay leaf; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 cup chicken broth; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 cups hot cooked rice; 1/2 cup sour cream; Chopped fresh parsley for garnish (optional)

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. 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 their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
White wine + mushroomtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,765 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Garlic + mushroomtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,700 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken quarters: Provide the main protein, which becomes tender during slow covered cooking in the broth.
Flour: Thickens the cooking liquid into a smooth sauce as it heats and bubbles.
Sour cream: Adds creamy richness and a tangy note to the finished sauce.
Dry white wine: Adds acidity and loosens browned bits from the skillet into the sauce.
Bacon: Adds smoky fat and savory flavor to the pan that starts the dish.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it cooks, adding savory depth to the sauce.

The step that matters

Blend flour with wine before adding it to the sauce. Flour dropped straight into hot liquid clumps and stays lumpy. Mixing it with cold wine first separates the starch grains so they disperse evenly and thicken the sauce smoothly.

Swap the parsley

The recipe marks parsley as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (clove, garlic, butter, chicken, onion, white wine, mushroom):

Thymefits better
Marjoramfits about as well
Gingerfits about as well
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, garlic, butter, chicken, onion, white wine, mushroom. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Mushrooms	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Chives	1 tbsp (3g)	1

Chicken À LA Winegrower