Name: Saute of Chicken Aux Fine Herbs
Ingredients: 1 young chicken, cut into 6 joints; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 tablespoon sherry; 3 tablespoons Espagnole Sauce; 1 tablespoon Tomato Sauce

Why it works: Chicken and tomato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,031 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Saute of Chicken Aux Fine Herbs

Ingredients

1 young chicken, cut into 6 joints
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon sherry
3 tablespoons Espagnole Sauce
1 tablespoon Tomato Sauce

Directions

Fry the chicken joints in a stew pan with butter for 15 minutes.
Add sherry, Espagnole Sauce, and Tomato Sauce to the pan.
Stir well and cook for a few more minutes until heated through.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together6,031 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together3,505 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together15,338 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Sauce + tomatotop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlaplow

Mentioned together5,469 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Chicken + sherrytop 15% of all pairs

Aroma overlapmoderate

Mentioned together891 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

Butter and sauce share little aroma chemistry, yet 15,338 recipes mention both: they likely 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

Chicken joints: Provide the main protein, which browns in butter and becomes tender as it cooks.
Butter: Fat for frying that browns the chicken and adds rich flavour.
Espagnole sauce: Brown sauce base that adds body, depth and savoury flavour to the pan.
Tomato sauce: Adds acidity and sweetness that balances the richness of the sauces.

Flavor stand-ins for the tomato

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, sherry, sauce):

Capsicumabout as good a flavor fit
Tomatothe original
Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
Onionabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, sherry, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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.