Name: Barbeque Chicken with Barbados Marinade
Ingredients: Marinade; 1/3 cup (80 ml) fresh orange juice; 1/4 cup (60 ml) fresh lemon juice; 1/4 cup (60 ml) extra virgin olive oil; 1/4 cup (60 ml) Barbados sugar; 1/4 cup (60 ml) frozen lemon juice concentrate, thawed; 3 tablespoons (45 ml) fresh lime juice; 3 tablespoons (45 ml) chopped fresh mint leaves; 2 teaspoons (10 ml) grated orange peel; 2 teaspoons (10 ml) grated lemon peel; 1 teaspoon (5 ml) grated lime peel; 1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground cumin; 1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) ground cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon (1 ml) salt; 1/8 teaspoon (0.5 ml) ground pepper; Chicken; 4 chicken breast halves with ribs; 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced

Why it works: Lime and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,216 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. 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.

Lime + cumintop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,216 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cumin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,103 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Lemon + limetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,289 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Lime + minttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together846 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breast halves: Provide the main protein, which cooks through on the grill while staying moist with basting.
Barbados sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the marinade caramelize and brown on the grill.
Extra virgin olive oil: Carries the citrus and spice flavours and helps keep the chicken moist.
Fresh orange juice: Provides acidity and fruity sweetness that flavours and tenderises the chicken.
Fresh lemon juice: Adds acidity that brightens the marinade and gently tenderises the meat.
Red onion: Adds a sharp, aromatic flavour that mellows as it cooks.

The step that matters

Cooking the chicken through. Chicken must reach a safe internal temperature, and the marinade's sugar darkens quickly over direct heat. Basting late and keeping the heat at medium helps prevent burning while the meat cooks through.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (orange, lemon, olive, sugar, lime, cumin, cinnamon):

Cardamomfits better
Corianderfits better
Fennelfits better
Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against orange, lemon, olive, sugar, lime, cumin, cinnamon. 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
Orange Juice	1 medium (131g)	62
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Peppermint	not in our table	0

Barbeque Chicken with Barbados Marinade