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Mediterranean Chicken Salad

"Tender, boneless chicken breasts are marinated in sun dried tomato dressing, grilled with sweet bell peppers, and served atop a crunchy romaine bed sprinkled with feta and olives."

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Why it works: Tomato and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and 6,027 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

4 servings
Prep10 min
Cook15 min

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. Place the chicken breasts in a shallow dish, pour in the larger portion of the sun-dried tomato and oregano dressing, turn to coat, cover, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

  2. Heat a grill pan or outdoor grill over medium-high heat. Place the bell pepper halves cut side down and cook for about 5 minutes until charred, then turn and cook 2 to 3 minutes more until softened. Set aside to cool slightly, then slice.

  3. Remove the chicken from the marinade and discard the used marinade. Grill the chicken for 5 to 6 minutes per side, until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C).

  4. Let the chicken rest for 5 minutes, then slice it into strips.

  5. Place the torn romaine in a large bowl. Add the drained black olives and the crumbled feta cheese.

  6. Add the sliced peppers and chicken on top of the salad.

  7. Drizzle with the remaining dressing, toss gently to combine, and serve immediately.

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. Tomato + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,027 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Tomato + olivetop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,164 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Tomato + oreganotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Olive + feta cheesetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,438 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (apple, fatty).

  5. Oregano + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,449 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the lettuce

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (tomato, oregano, chicken, pepper, olive, feta cheese):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Eggplantbetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against tomato, oregano, chicken, pepper, olive, feta cheese. 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).