Name: White Wine Chicken and Vegetables
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons olive oil; 1 tablespoon sesame oil; 1 large white onion sliced; ½ large green pepper sliced; 2 stalks celery sliced; 3 cloves garlic; 2 boneless chicken breasts cooked and sliced; ½ cup white wine; 2 tablespoons lemon juice; ¼ teaspoon ginger; 2 tablespoons soy sauce; 1 cup chicken broth; 2 tablespoons flour; 1 small can mushrooms drained

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).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Sesame + oniontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breasts: Provide the main protein, which is already cooked and gently reheated in the sauce.
Flour: Thickens the chicken broth into a light sauce that clings to the chicken and vegetables.
White wine: Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the savory sauce as it simmers.
Chicken broth: Forms the liquid base of the sauce, adding savory flavor and moisture.
Olive oil: Carries flavor and softens the onion, green pepper, celery and garlic at the start.
Soy sauce: Adds salty, savory depth that rounds out the sauce.

The step that matters

Thickening with flour and broth. Flour must be whisked smoothly into the cold broth before it goes in; added dry or in lumps, it clumps and leaves the sauce grainy, because starch only thickens evenly when it is dispersed in liquid first.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, sesame, onion, pepper, celery, garlic, chicken):

Cuminfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against olive, sesame, onion, pepper, celery, garlic, chicken. 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
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Mushroom	1/2 cup sliced (35g)	15
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2

White Wine Chicken and Vegetables