Name: Sweet and Sour Chicken Salad
Ingredients: ¾ lb boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and cut into 2-inch cubes; 1 cup celery, diagonally sliced; ⅔ cup snow peas, trimmed; ⅓ cup red bell peppers, seeded and diced; ⅔ cup apples, unpeeled and diced (we use Gala); 2 tablespoons vinegar; 2 tablespoons canola oil; 2 tablespoons sugar; ¾ teaspoon paprika; ¾ teaspoon celery seeds; salt and pepper, to taste

Why it works: Celery and pepper match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,012 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Celery + appletop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,155 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Celery + peastop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,832 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Peas + canola oiltop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together78 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Chicken + peastop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,528 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken breasts: Provides the protein base and bulk of the salad.
Apples: Add crisp texture and a mild sweetness that balances the vinegar.
Vinegar: Brings the sharp acidity that defines the sweet and sour dressing.
Sugar: Sweetens the dressing to offset the acidity of the vinegar.
Canola oil: Adds fat that carries flavour and gives the dressing body.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, celery, peas, pepper, vinegar, canola oil, sugar):

Lemonfits better
Limefits better
Cherryfits better
Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, celery, peas, pepper, vinegar, canola oil, sugar. 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
Apple	1 medium (182g)	95
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Red Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Celery Seed	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Vinegar	1 tbsp (15ml) distilled	3
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Sweet and Sour Chicken Salad