Name: Baked Chicken with Bacon Tomato Sauce
Ingredients: 2 cups fire roasted diced tomatoes; 6 slices bacon cut into 1-inch pieces; 4 pounds bone in chicken pieces; ¾ teaspoon salt divided; ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1 onion cut into ⅓-inch slices

Why it works: Tomato and pepper are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,923 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Baked Chicken with Bacon Tomato Sauce

Oven450°F

Time40 minutes

Ingredients

2 cups fire roasted diced tomatoes
6 slices bacon cut into 1-inch pieces
4 pounds bone in chicken pieces
¾ teaspoon salt divided
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 onion cut into ⅓-inch slices

Directions

Prepare

Preheat oven to 450.
Spread tomatoes on bottom of rectangular baking dish.
Cook bacon in large nonstick skillet over medium high heat for 8 minutes, turning once. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
Reserve skillet and drippings.
Season chicken pieces with ½ teaspoon salt and pepper. Cook in another large skillet over high heat 5 minutes, turning as needed to brown evenly.

Bake and serve

Arrange chicken over tomatoes.
Bake uncovered for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, cook onion slices in reserved bacon drippings 8 minutes. Transfer to brown paper bag with slotted spoon.
Add remaining salt, then shake to degrease onions and mix with salt.
Transfer chicken and tomatoes to serving plate, then sprinkle with bacon and onions.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

280Calories

37 gProtein

7 gFat

16 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 6 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 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.

Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Tomato + chickentop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together6,031 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,814 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together68,474 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Bone-in chicken pieces: Browning in the skillet and baking give the meat a seared exterior and cooked-through interior.
Bacon: Rendered drippings add fat and smoky flavor to the onions and the dish.
Fire roasted diced tomatoes: Form the sauce base, adding moisture and acidity as the chicken bakes.
Onion: Softens and sweetens in bacon fat, adding savory depth.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken over high heat. Searing the skin before baking builds browned flavor through the Maillard reaction and helps render fat. Pale, unseared chicken tastes flatter and can look unappealing.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Okrafits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, chicken, pepper. 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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Baked Chicken with Bacon Tomato Sauce