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Caribbean Lime Chicken

A chicken dish marinated in lime juice, garlic, and spices, then sautéed with onions and tomatoes.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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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 ↓

Caribbean Lime Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Marinate

  1. Mix 3 tablespoons lime juice, garlic, salt, thyme, pepper flakes and black pepper in a dish.

  2. Add chicken and mix well.

Cook

  1. Heat oil until hot in a large skillet.

  2. Place chicken in skillet in a single layer and cook over medium heat until browned, about 5 minutes.

  3. Turn chicken over and brown the other side, about 5 minutes.

  4. Add onion to pan and cook, stirring often, about 8 minutes or until chicken and onions are cooked through.

  5. Add tomatoes and curry powder to pan and cook 2 minutes.

  6. Stir in remaining lime juice.

Serve

  1. Serve with rice. Garnish with citrus wedges and fresh chives, if desired.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

455Calories
36 gProtein
18 gFat
40 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 13 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Limejuice of 1 lime (44ml)11
Turmeric1 tsp ground (3g)9
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Thyme1 tsp dried (1.4g)4
Chives1 tbsp (3g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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.

  1. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Lime + thymetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together305 recipes

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

  3. Lime + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,491 recipes

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

  4. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together11,585 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 parts
Browning in the skillet builds flavour, and the skin adds fat and crisp texture.
Lime juice
Acidity that brightens the dish and tenderises the chicken during marinating.
Onions
Soften and sweeten as they cook alongside the chicken in the pan juices.
Tomatoes
Add moisture and acidity that combine with the pan juices into a light sauce.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that mellows and sweetens as it cooks.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken in a single layer. Crowding the pan traps steam, so the chicken releases moisture and turns grey instead of browning. Spacing the pieces out lets the surface dry and caramelise, which builds flavour and colour.

Swap the lime

The recipe marks lime as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (garlic, thyme, pepper, chicken, onion, tomato, orange):

  1. Limethe original
  2. Lemonfits about as well
  3. Avocadofits less well
  4. Cherryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against garlic, thyme, pepper, chicken, onion, tomato, orange. 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.

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