Name: Senegalese-style Chicken with Coconut Milk and Peanuts
Ingredients: 1 (4-pound) chicken, excess fat removed and discarded, cut into 8 pieces (two half-breasts, each cut crosswise in half; 2 thighs, 2 drumsticks, 2 wings); salt; pepper; 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil; 1 medium onion, chopped fine; 2 cloves garlic, chopped fine; 2 jalapeno chiles, stemmed, seeded, chopped fine; 1 tablespoon curry powder; 1 cup chicken broth; 5 medium tomatoes, peeled, cut in half crosswise, seeds squeezed out, chopped coarse; or one 28- ounce can whole tomatoes, drained, seeds squeezed out, chopped coarse; 1 cup unsweetened coconut milk; 1/3 cup smooth peanut butter without additives; 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro; 2 tablespoon lime juice

Why it works: Onion and garlic 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.

Onion + garlictop 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).
Peanut + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together877 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).
Pepper + clovetop 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: Supplies the main protein; browning builds flavour on the skin and surface before simmering.
Coconut milk: Adds richness and body to the sauce, mellowing the curry spice.
Peanut butter: Thickens the sauce and adds nutty richness and body.
Tomatoes: Provide acidity and moisture that form the base of the sauce.
Onion: Softens and sweetens as it cooks, forming the aromatic base.

The step that matters

Whisk the peanut butter into the hot tomato-coconut mixture. Peanut butter is thick and can clump or separate if added to a boiling or very hot liquid without first being thinned with some of the sauce. Whisking it with part of the sauce first gives a smooth, cohesive result.

Swap the jalapeno

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

Cuminfits better
Corianderfits better
Thymefits better
Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, peanut, onion, clove, garlic, tomato. 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
Coconut	1/2 cup shredded (40g)	283
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
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
Seed	not in our table	0

Senegalese-style Chicken with Coconut Milk and Peanuts