Name: Broiled or Smothered Chicken
Ingredients: 2 cups of liquid; 1 slice of veal 1 inch thick; 2 slices of bacon; 2 cups of finely chopped cooked mutton; 2 shanks veal; six pork chops; 2 cloves; 2 bay leaves; 2 onions; 35 veal birds; 1 inch thick; 1 tbs; one egg slightly beaten; 1 package of spa- ghetti; 36 meat pie; 4 lbs; 2 good sized onions sliced; 3 bay leaves; 2 qts; half butter; cloves; salt; pepper; cayenne; bay leaf

Why it works: Pork and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,214 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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.

Pork + oniontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together18,214 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Veal + porktop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,930 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
Pork + meattop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,208 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Mutton + porktop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,239 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-nonanal (fatty, waxy).
Clove + oniontop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together16,901 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken (in the method): Forms the main protein; cutting it into pieces lets it cook evenly and brown.
Flour (in the method): Coats the chicken so the surface browns and helps thicken the pan juices.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the chicken brown and stay moist in the oven.

The step that matters

Cover and bake forty minutes. Baking covered first traps steam so the chicken cooks through and stays moist; the cover must come off afterward, or the coating will not brown.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (veal, mutton, pork, onion, egg, meat, butter):

Garlicfits better
Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against veal, mutton, pork, onion, egg, meat, butter. 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
Pork	100g cooked	242
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Egg	1 large egg (50g)	78
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Veal	not in our table	0
Mutton	not in our table	0
Meat	not in our table	0
Pie	not in our table	0

Broiled or Smothered Chicken