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Chicken with Figs in a Port Wine Sauce

"This is a delicious dish, with Middle Eastern flavors. Easy to make and a firm favorite when entertaining."

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Why it works: Port wine and fig share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 24 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

The recipe

5 servings
Prep15 min
Cook25 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk, wheat (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. Cut each dried fig into quarters and place them in a small bowl with the port wine. Let them soak for 10 minutes while you prepare the chicken.

  2. Place each chicken breast half between sheets of plastic wrap and pound to an even thickness. Dredge both sides in the flour and shake off the excess.

  3. Melt 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the chicken 4 to 5 minutes per side until golden and cooked through to 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part. Transfer to a plate.

  4. Add the dry white wine to the same skillet and scrape up the browned bits. Simmer for 2 minutes, then add the chicken stock and simmer for 3 minutes more.

  5. Add the figs and port to the skillet and simmer for 3 to 4 minutes, until the figs are plump and the sauce has slightly reduced.

  6. Stir in the heavy cream and the remaining tablespoon of butter and simmer for 1 minute. Return the chicken and any juices to the pan, spoon the sauce over, and heat for 2 minutes before serving.

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. Port wine + figtop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Port wine + white winetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together52 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Butter + white winetop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together5,039 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Butter + creamtop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together41,494 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Butter + port winetop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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