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Chicken Tinola

"This is another meal-in-a-pot dish. It contains meat and vegetables all cooked together in one savory dish."

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Why it works: Garlic and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,839 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine, which smells roasted, nutty. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep30 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

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

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Heat the cooking oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the chopped onion, minced garlic and sliced ginger, and cook 4 to 5 minutes until the onion softens.

  2. Add the chicken pieces and cook 5 minutes, turning, until the outside is no longer pink. Season lightly with salt and pepper.

  3. Stir in the fish sauce, then pour in the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes, skimming any foam from the surface.

  4. Add the chayote pieces to the pot and simmer 5 minutes until just tender.

  5. Add the chopped bok choy and spinach and cook 2 to 3 minutes until the greens wilt. Taste and adjust salt and pepper.

  6. Cook until the chicken reaches 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part, then serve hot.

By allrecipes. 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. Garlic + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together10,839 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  2. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Garlic + spinachtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together2,433 recipes

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

  4. Onion + chickentop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Garlic + chayotetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together31 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the chayote

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, chicken, pepper, spinach):

  1. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  2. Potatobetter flavor fit
  3. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  4. Chayotethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, ginger, fish sauce, chicken, pepper, spinach. 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).