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Santa Fe Chicken Salad

"This is one of my favorites. It's very festive and it makes a great meal."

By allrecipes · From Open Recipes · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and tomato 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
Prep30 min
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, 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. Place the chicken breasts in a pot, cover with water, and bring to a simmer. Cook about 15 minutes until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C). Drain and let cool.

  2. Shred or chop the cooled chicken and toss it with the mayonnaise and Italian-style salad dressing. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

  3. Cut the flour tortillas into thin strips and spread them on a baking sheet. Bake at 400°F (204°C) for 5 to 7 minutes until crisp.

  4. Tear the iceberg lettuce and the rinsed, dried romaine into bite-size pieces. Place them in a large bowl with the chopped green onions and chopped tomato.

  5. In a small bowl, stir together the ranch-style dressing and salsa.

  6. Add the chilled chicken and the shredded Cheddar and Monterey cheese blend to the greens. Pour the ranch and salsa dressing over and toss well.

  7. Top the salad with the crisp tortilla strips and serve right away.

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. Chicken + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together6,027 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Lettuce + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,654 recipes

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

  4. Onion + tomatotop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together20,622 recipes

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

  5. Cheese + ranchtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together65 recipes

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

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 (chicken, onion, tomato, cheese, flour, ranch):

  1. Potatobetter flavor fit
  2. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  3. Welsh onionbetter flavor fit
  4. Lettucethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, tomato, cheese, flour, ranch. 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).