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Chocolate Mayan Jungle Bird

"Chicken breasts, marinated in sweetened condensed milk and pan-fried, are served in a flavorful, chocolate and wine sauce."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Red wine and chocolate share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 36 recipes mention both. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep40 min
Cook2 hr

Ingredients

Contains: milk (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. Pat the bone-in chicken breast halves dry and sprinkle them with some of the bouillon granules. Heat 3 tablespoons of the vegetable oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat and brown the chicken skin-side down for about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.

  2. Lower the heat to medium. Add the remaining oil, onion, carrot, celery, shallot and garlic, and cook, stirring, for about 8 minutes until softened.

  3. Add the chile pepper halves, crushed juniper berries, peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon stick, bay leaves, rosemary and thyme. Stir for 1 minute until fragrant.

  4. Pour in the Burgundy or dry red wine, scraping up the browned bits from the bottom. Simmer for about 10 minutes until slightly reduced.

  5. Add the chicken stock and the remaining bouillon granules, stirring until dissolved. Return the chicken and any juices to the pot, bring to a gentle simmer, then cover and cook over low heat for about 60 minutes.

  6. Check the chicken with a thermometer. It is done when the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Transfer the chicken to a plate and keep it warm.

  7. Strain the sauce through a fine sieve, discarding the solids and herbs. Return the sauce to the pot.

  8. Whisk in the sweetened condensed milk and grated semisweet chocolate. Simmer gently for about 10 minutes, stirring, until smooth and slightly thickened. Do not boil hard.

  9. Return the chicken to the sauce, spoon it over the pieces, and warm through for about 5 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. Red wine + chocolatetop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,172 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Celery + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together16,001 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the shallot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (condensed milk, chicken, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, garlic):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against condensed milk, chicken, onion, carrot, celery, pepper, garlic. 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).