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 ↓
Chicken Saute
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Heat the oil in a small stewpan until boiling.
Fry the cooked chicken pieces in the oil for about 6 minutes until browned.
Prepare the sauce by melting the butter in a stewpan.
Stir in the flour, then add the water and stock, mixing well.
Add the minced garlic, shallot, and mushrooms to the sauce.
Finish and serve
Remove the sauce from heat, then stir in the cream and lemon juice.
Arrange the chicken and broiled bacon in a circle on a serving dish.
Pour the sauce over the chicken and bacon, and serve.
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.
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Chicken + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Shallot + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,982 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Garlic + shallottop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,000 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Clove + shallottop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,677 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Shallot + flourtop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,081 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken pieces
- Provide the main protein, browned in hot oil for savoury flavour.
- Butter
- Melts to form the fat base for the sauce and adds richness.
- Flour
- Thickens the sauce as it cooks with the liquid, giving it body.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, rounded texture to the finished sauce.
- Mushrooms
- Add savoury, earthy flavour and moisture to the sauce.
The step that matters
Stirring in the cream and lemon juice off the heat. Cream can curdle or split when boiled with acid, so removing the sauce from the heat before adding the cream and lemon juice helps keep it smooth.
Swap the clove
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, garlic, shallot, mushroom, butter, flour, cream):
- Capersfits better
- Thymefits better
- Tarragonfits better
- Clovethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, garlic, shallot, mushroom, butter, flour, cream. 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.
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