Chicken Sauce

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.

1. Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together4,172 recipes

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

2. Butter + mushroomtop 7% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together12,525 recipes

   Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).

3. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together17,814 recipes

   Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

4. Mushroom + oniontop 10% of all pairs
   Smell alikemoderate
   Cooked together10,626 recipes

   Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
   Smell alikelow
   Cooked together124,287 recipes

   Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Chickens

Provide the meat that is braised until tender in the sauce.

Butter

Enriches the sauce and helps the chicken take on colour as it starts to cook.

Flour

Dusted on the chicken to thicken the gravy as it simmers.

Egg yolks

Enrich and thicken the gravy when beaten in at the end.

Lemon juice

Adds acidity that brightens the rich gravy and balances the egg yolks.

Baker's loaf

Acts as a edible bowl that holds the chicken and gravy.

The step that matters

Swap the white pepper

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, mushroom, onion, egg, lemon):

1. Thymefits better
2. Parsleyfits better
3. Garlicfits better
4. White pepperthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, mushroom, onion, egg, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.