Name: Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breasts with Warm Lentil Salad
Ingredients: 1 cup lentils, preferably Le Puy; 4 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil; 1 carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch dice; 1 celery stalk, cut into 1/4-inch dice; 1 shallot, minced; 1 garlic clove, minced; 2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or stock; 1 1/2 tsp. kosher salt, plus more, to taste; 3/4 tsp. freshly ground pepper, plus more, to taste; 1 bay leaf; 1 Tbs. sherry vinegar; 1 tsp. minced fresh thyme; 4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves, each about 7 oz.; 4 thick-cut bacon slices

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Lentils + shallottop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together20 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Lentils + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together633 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Shallot + garlictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,000 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lentils, olive, carrot, celery, shallot, garlic, chicken):

Cuminfits better
Parsleyfits better
Capersfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lentils, olive, carrot, celery, shallot, garlic, chicken. 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
Lentil	1/2 cup cooked (99g)	115
Bacon	1 slice cooked (8g)	43
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Shallot	1 tbsp minced (10g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Bacon-Wrapped Chicken Breasts with Warm Lentil Salad