Why it works: Chicken and mushroom are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,172 recipes. Both carry 1-butyl acetate, which smells fruity, banana. The science ↓
Spanish Stew
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Clean and joint the chicken.
Slice the tomatoes and shred the peppers, removing the seeds.
Slice the onions.
Place the chicken in a kettle with the tomatoes, peppers, and onions.
Cook
Add the boiling water and cover the kettle.
Simmer until the chicken is tender.
Finish and serve
Strain the mixture through a colander and rub the vegetable part through a sieve.
Return the vegetables to the kettle.
Add the can of small peas, the can of mushrooms, and the grated potatoes.
Add the salt and cook until the potatoes are tender.
Replace the chicken in the kettle and heat thoroughly.
Serve with a border of boiled rice or mashed potatoes.
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 + mushroomtop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,172 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,798 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Potato + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together851 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat and savory base flavor of the stew as it simmers in the broth.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity and moisture, and their pulp helps build the body of the sauce.
- Potatoes
- Release starch as they cook and break down, thickening the broth and adding body.
- Red peppers
- Add sweetness and fresh aromatic flavor that balances the tomatoes.
- Mushrooms
- Add earthy, savory depth to the broth.
- Small peas
- Add sweetness and a soft, tender texture to the finished stew.
The step that matters
Rubbing the vegetables through a sieve. Pressing the cooked tomatoes, peppers, and onions through a sieve breaks down their cell walls and releases pectin and starch, which thicken the broth and make it smooth. Leaving the mixture unpressed or too coarse results in a thin, grainy sauce.
Swap the peas
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, mushroom, tomato, potato, pepper, rice):
- Beansfits better
- Chickpeafits better
- Sesamefits better
- Peasthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, mushroom, tomato, potato, pepper, rice. 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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