Name: Chicken Salad
Ingredients: 1 whole chicken; 4 hard-boiled eggs, chopped; 1 cup celery, finely cut; ½ cup blanched almonds, chopped; ½ cup filberts, chopped; salad dressing No. 2; parsley sprigs for garnish

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Salad

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

Boil the chicken until tender.
Cut the chicken into small pieces using scissors.

Assemble and serve

In a bowl, combine the chicken, chopped eggs, celery, almonds, and filberts.
Mix thoroughly with salad dressing No. 2.
Garnish the salad bowl with sprigs of parsley and serve cold.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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 + parsleytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Almond + parsleytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together548 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Celery + almondtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together485 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Almond + filberttop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together80 recipes

Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).
Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,375 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main protein and bulk of the salad, becoming tender when simmered.
Hard-boiled eggs: Add soft, creamy texture and body to the salad.
Celery: Adds crisp texture and a fresh, mild crunch against the softer ingredients.
Blanched almonds: Contribute crunch and a mild nutty flavor.
Filberts: Add crunch and a rich, nutty flavor.
Salad dressing no. 2: Binds the ingredients together and adds moisture and flavor.

Swap the filbert

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, egg, celery, almond, parsley):

Cashew nutfits better
Chickpeafits better
Walnutfits better
Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, egg, celery, almond, parsley. 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.