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Cavatappi Pasta and Chicken Cacciatore with Mushrooms

A hearty chicken cacciatore with mushrooms served over cavatappi pasta.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Capers and pasta share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 89 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

The recipe

Time25 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the mushrooms

  1. Pour boiling water over porcini mushrooms in a bowl and soak for 10 minutes.

  2. Drain the soaked mushrooms through a sieve lined with paper toweling, then chop them.

Brown the chicken

  1. Sprinkle the chicken with ½ teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon pepper.

  2. In a saucepan, heat 1 tablespoon olive oil.

  3. Add half of the chicken and cook until lightly browned. Remove the browned chicken to a bowl.

  4. Repeat with the remaining chicken.

Make the sauce and cook

  1. Reduce the heat.

  2. Add the remaining oil, onion, and garlic to the saucepan and saute until the onion is softened.

  3. Add the mushrooms to the saucepan and saute until the mushrooms are softened.

  4. Stir in the tomatoes, porcini liquid, remaining salt, capers, and pepper flakes.

  5. Simmer uncovered for 15 minutes.

  6. Return the chicken to the pan and cook for 25 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.

Cook the pasta

  1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Capers + pastatop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together89 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Olive + tomatotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Mushroom + chickentop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together4,171 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).

  5. Garlic + shiitaketop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together292 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Boneless skinless chicken thighs
Stays moist and tender through the long simmer, and browns to add savory flavor.
Dried porcini mushrooms
Soaking adds deep, earthy umami flavor that carries into the sauce.
Whole tomatoes in puree
Form the body of the sauce and add acidity and sweetness as they cook down.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building the base flavor of the sauce.
Cavatappi pasta
Its curved, hollow shape holds the chunky sauce well.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken in batches. Crowding the pan lowers its temperature so the chicken steams instead of browning. Browning in batches gives better color and deeper flavor, which the simmered sauce then carries.

Flavor stand-ins for the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (mushroom, chicken, pepper, olive, garlic, shiitake, tomato):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  3. Spinachabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mushroom, chicken, pepper, olive, garlic, shiitake, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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