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Pancetta-wrapped Chicken Breasts Stuffed with Blue Cheese, with Leek and Asparagus Risotto

Try this easy way of cooking chicken breasts for a satisfying family meal or dinner party dish.

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Why it works: Blue cheese and asparagus share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 11 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine, which smells cocoa, roasted. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep30 min
Cook1 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Blue cheese + asparagustop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

  2. Spinach + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,433 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-hexanol (resin, flower).

  3. Olive + garlictop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together23,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Asparagus + leektop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together73 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  5. Spinach + asparagustop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together274 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the nutmeg

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, spinach, olive, garlic, pepper, chicken, blue cheese):

  1. Thymebetter flavor fit
  2. Rosemarybetter flavor fit
  3. Parsleybetter flavor fit
  4. Nutmegthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, spinach, olive, garlic, pepper, chicken, blue cheese. 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).