Name: Chicken in Wine Sauce
Ingredients: 1/4 cup flour; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder; 2 1/2 to 3 pounds choice chicken pieces; 2 tablespoons butter or margarine; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 1 large onion, sliced; 1/4 cup white wine; 2 cups chicken broth; 1 bay leaf; 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch; 2 large tomatoes, cut into wedges; 1/4 cup sour cream; 3 cups hot cooked rice

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).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + chickentop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Pepper + garlictop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,090 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken pieces: Browned in seasoned flour, then simmered until tender in the sauce.
Flour: Coats the chicken so it browns well and helps thicken the pan juices.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma to the sauce as it boils down.
Chicken broth: Forms the liquid base of the sauce and keeps the chicken moist while it simmers.
Cornstarch: Thickens the sauce when heated, giving it body.
Sour cream: Adds richness and a tangy flavor to the finished sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening the sauce with cornstarch. Cornstarch must be dissolved in cold water before it is added to hot liquid, otherwise it clumps. It thickens only when the sauce is stirred and heated, so the sauce should be cooked until it visibly thickens before serving.

Swap the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, pepper, garlic, chicken, butter, onion, white wine):

Potatofits better
Chivefits better
Leekfits better
Tomatothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, pepper, garlic, chicken, butter, onion, white wine. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Yogurt	170g plain Greek	100
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chicken in Wine Sauce