Name: Soy-glazed Chicken with Peas and Water Chestnuts
Ingredients: ½ cup soy sauce; ¼ cup dark brown sugar; ½ tsp ground ginger; 2 tbsp rice vinegar; 2 tbsp dark Asian sesame oil; 2 tsp cornstarch; 4 pounds chicken, cut up; 3 oz snow peas, strings removed; 8 oz can sliced water chestnuts, drained

Why it works: Chicken and water chestnut work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and 204 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-methylbutyraldehyde, which smells malty, chocolate. The science ↓

The recipe

Oven350°F

Time45 minutes

Ingredients

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

Directions

Make the glaze

Whisk the first six ingredients in a saucepan and cook until the glaze thickens, about 2 minutes.

Bake the chicken

Place the chicken, skin side up, on a rack in a baking pan.
Brush the chicken with some of the glaze.
Bake in a 350‑degree oven for 45 minutes.
Brush the chicken with glaze every 10 minutes.
Stop glazing 5 minutes before the end of baking.
Broil the chicken for 5 minutes to crisp the skin.

Serve

Cook couscous following package directions with water, then add peas and water chestnuts.
Place the chicken and couscous on a platter.

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.

Chicken + water chestnuttop 9% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together204 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).
Sesame + water chestnuttop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together112 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Rice + chickentop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,569 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together643 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Ginger + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Soy sauce: Provides salty, savory depth and helps build the dark glaze colour.
Dark brown sugar: Adds sweetness and caramelises during baking, helping the glaze brown and turn sticky.
Cornstarch: Thickens the glaze so it clings to the chicken rather than running off.
Chicken: Supplies the main protein; its skin crisps under the final broil.
Rice vinegar: Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and sharpness of the glaze.

The step that matters

Stop glazing 5 minutes before the end of baking. Sugar in the glaze darkens quickly and can burn. Ending the glazing early lets the coating set and keeps it from scorching before the final broil.

“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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Soy-glazed Chicken with Peas and Water Chestnuts