Name: Chicken Shawarma
Ingredients: 5 kg bonelesse chicken; 400 grams lemon juice; 400 grams olives oil; 150 grams rushe garlic; 1 tbsp salt; 2 tsp pepper; 100 grams cordamon powder; 100 grams cunin powder; 100 grams coriender powder; 2 tbsp mustard; 1 cup white vinegar; 1 dash cloves powder; 1 dash nutmic grined; 1 cup plane youghurt

Why it works: Olive and garlic are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 25,665 recipes. Both carry linalool, which smells floral, citrus. 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.

Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together25,665 recipes

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

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together27,047 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Garlic + mustardtop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together4,053 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together10,850 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

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

What each ingredient does

Boneless chicken: Forms the main body of the dish and becomes tender, sliceable meat when cooked.
Olive oil: Adds fat that carries the spices and helps keep the meat moist during grilling.
Lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and begins softening the meat's surface.
Plain yoghurt (in the method): Adds moisture and mild acidity that help keep the marinated chicken tender.
Garlic: Contributes a sharp, aromatic flavour that deepens as the chicken marinates.
White vinegar: Adds sharp acidity that helps the marinade flavour the meat.

The step that matters

Overnight marinating. The acids in the lemon juice, vinegar and yoghurt slowly work on the meat and spices penetrate it over time. Leaving it too long in an acidic marinade can make the chicken's texture soft and mushy, so the timing matters.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lemon, olive, garlic, pepper, mustard, vinegar):

Thymefits better
Tarragonfits better
Rosemaryfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, lemon, olive, garlic, pepper, mustard, vinegar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Olive	1 large (4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Mustard	1 tsp (5g) yellow	3
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chicken Shawarma