Name: Chicken with Asparagus Tips
Ingredients: 2 cups very tender chicken breast, cooked; 1 tablespoon butter; ⅓ cup cream; 1 cup cooked asparagus tips (fresh or canned); Yolks of 2 hard boiled eggs; Salt and pepper to taste

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Chicken with Asparagus Tips

Ingredients

2 cups very tender chicken breast, cooked
1 tablespoon butter
⅓ cup cream
1 cup cooked asparagus tips (fresh or canned)
Yolks of 2 hard boiled eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Make the sauce

Rub the yolks and butter together to form a paste.
Add the cream and stir until thoroughly blended.
Season with salt and pepper.

Finish

Add the asparagus tips and chicken, and cook for a few minutes.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Asparagus + peppertop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,968 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Chicken + asparagustop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together539 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together19,958 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

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

What each ingredient does

Hard boiled egg yolks: Mash into the butter to form a smooth, thick base for the sauce.
Butter: Adds fat and richness, helping the yolks blend into a smooth paste.
Cream: Adds moisture and body, turning the yolk paste into a creamy sauce.
Chicken breast: Provides the main protein, kept tender by the creamy sauce.
Asparagus tips: Add vegetable flavour and a slight tender bite to the dish.

Swap the asparagus

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, cream, egg, pepper):

Potatofits about as well
Capsicumfits about as well
Asparagusthe original
Spinachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, cream, egg, pepper. 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.