Why it works: Chicken and onion are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,814 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓
Chicken Fricassee, with Small Onions
Ingredients
Directions
Brown the chicken
Melt the butter in a stewpan.
Add the chicken pieces, bacon, and any bones.
Cook on low heat, stirring for 8-10 minutes.
Sprinkle the flour over the chicken.
Cook for a few more minutes.
Make the sauce
Add the warm broth and white wine.
Stir until it begins to boil.
Let the sauce reduce for 7-8 minutes.
Move the stewpan to the side of the heat.
Skim the fat from the sauce.
Cook the onions and serve
In a small pan, fry the onions with a little salt and sugar until tender.
Add the onions to the chicken stew, ensuring both are cooked through.
Serve the chicken surrounded by onions, and pour the sauce over.
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 + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Butter + white winetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,083 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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White wine + oniontop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,535 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + white winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,904 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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
- Chicken
- Provides the main protein and, as it cooks, flavour for the sauce.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps brown the chicken pieces in the pan.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking juices into a smooth, lightly bound sauce.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and aroma, and reduces to deepen the sauce's flavour.
- Streaky bacon
- Releases fat and smoky, savoury flavour into the pan.
- Onions
- Add sweetness and soft texture as they cook until tender.
The step that matters
Let the sauce reduce for 7-8 minutes. Reducing concentrates flavour and thickens the liquid. Under-reducing leaves a thin, watery sauce, while over-reducing can make it too salty or sticky.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, flour, white wine, sugar):
- Leekfits better
- Shallotfits better
- Potatofits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, flour, white wine, sugar. 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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