Name: Creole Chicken
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 1 can mushrooms; 1 onion; 1 green pepper; 1 can tomatoes; Salt and pepper to taste; 1 tablespoon sugar; 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce; Butter for frying

Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓

Creole Chicken

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Boil the chicken until tender, then tear it into pieces.

Make the sauce

Chop the onion and fry it in butter until yellow.
Add the chopped green pepper, canned tomatoes, mushrooms, salt, and pepper to the pan.
Stir in the sugar and Worcestershire sauce.
Cook the mixture until thoroughly done, then add the chicken.
Cover and let it cook until well seasoned.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

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.

Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,172 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
Mushroom + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,719 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Mushroom + buttertop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together12,525 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-decenal (waxy, orange).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 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

Whole chicken: Provides the main protein, which becomes tender through boiling and then absorbs the seasoned sauce.
Onion: Softens and turns sweet when fried in butter, forming the flavour base of the dish.
Canned tomatoes: Add acidity and liquid that build the body of the sauce.
Mushrooms: Add moisture and savoury, earthy flavour to the sauce.
Sugar: Adds sweetness that balances the acidity of the tomatoes.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, pepper, tomato, sugar, sauce, 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.