Name: Spit-Roasted Piri-Piri Chicken
Ingredients: 1 roasting chicken, about 4 lb., neck and giblets removed; 1/2 cup olive oil; 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice; 1/4 cup fresh orange juice; 1/4 cup red wine vinegar; 2 to 3 Tbs.; sauce or other hot-pepper sauce; 2 tsp. paprika; 1/2 tsp. ground cumin; Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste; 2 Tbs. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley; 2 tsp. peeled and finely chopped fresh ginger; 2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme; 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped; 1 or 2 handfuls mesquite wood chips, soaked if using charcoal (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + cumintop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,853 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + cumintop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,477 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Olive + lemontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,922 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Olive + orangetop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,456 recipes

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

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

Swap the cumin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, lemon, orange, red wine, vinegar, sauce):

Rosemaryfits better
Thymefits better
Tarragonfits better
Cuminthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, lemon, orange, red wine, vinegar, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Orange Juice	1 medium (131g)	62
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0
Wood	not in our table	0

Spit-Roasted Piri-Piri Chicken