Name: Anita’s Famous Chinese Chicken Salad
Prep time: 20 min
Yield: 6
Ingredients: 1 whole Cucumber, Diced; 3 whole Green Onions, Chopped; 1 whole Package Of Chicken Flavor Ramen Noodles, 3 Ounce Package, Noodles And Seasoning Packet Divided Use; 2 teaspoons Sesame Seeds; 3 whole Cooked And Shredded Boneless, Skinless Chicken Breasts; 1 whole Head Of Iceberg Lettuce, Chopped; ½ cups Canola Oil; ½ cups Water; ¾ cups Red Wine Vinegar; 6 Tablespoons White Sugar; 2 Tablespoons Low Sodium Soy Sauce; 3 cloves Garlic, Chopped; 1 pinch Dry Mustard; 2 pinches Ground Ginger; 1 Tablespoon Sesame Seeds

Why it works: Cucumber and lettuce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,409 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. 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.

Cucumber + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,409 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Sesame + lettucetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together193 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Cucumber + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together364 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Onion + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,192 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Sesame + canola oiltop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together201 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cucumber, chicken, sesame, lettuce, canola oil, red wine, vinegar):

Mustardfits better
Broccolifits better
Welsh onionfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cucumber, chicken, sesame, lettuce, canola oil, red wine, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Iceberg Lettuce	1 cup shredded (36g)	5
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Water	not in our table	0

Anita’s Famous Chinese Chicken Salad