Name: Spicy Marinated Chicken Kebabs Over Rice
Ingredients: 1/2 cup white wine; 1/4 cup lime juice; 1/4 cup vegetable oil; 2 cloves garlic, minced; 1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely chopped; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-inch cubes; 1 medium red onion, cut into 1-inch pieces; 2 medium red or green bell peppers, cut into 1-inch pieces; 2 medium yellow squash, cut into 1-inch pieces; 12 wooden or metal skewers*; Vegetable cooking spray; 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).
Lime + jalapenotop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,035 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,491 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + jalapenotop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,700 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breast: Provides the main protein; cooks quickly and turns dry if overcooked.
Lime juice: Adds acidity that brightens the marinade and helps tenderize the surface of the chicken.
Vegetable oil: Carries the garlic and jalapeno flavors and helps the marinade coat the pieces.
Garlic: Adds pungent aroma that mellows during marinating and broiling.
Red onion: Adds sweetness and firm texture that holds up on the skewers.
Yellow squash: Adds moisture and mild sweetness, softening and browning under the broiler.

The step that matters

Boiling the used marinade before basting. The marinade has touched raw chicken, so boiling it makes it safe to brush on the cooked pieces. Basting with unboiled marinade risks carrying bacteria onto the food.

Swap the jalapeno

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

Thymefits better
Cuminfits better
Corianderfits better
Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, lime, clove, garlic, pepper, chicken, onion. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Pumpkin	not in our table	0

Spicy Marinated Chicken Kebabs Over Rice