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Roast Chicken with Couscous

It's best to use a nice free-range or organic chicken for this dish, or the best-quality bird you can afford; and I love the idea of the tasty vegetables in this recipe getting a whole lot of love. If you like, a mint sauce would make a great accompaniment. Pretty delish!

By jamieoliver · From Open Recipes · 12 ingredients
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Roast Chicken with Couscous

Why it works: Carrot and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Roast Chicken with Couscous

Serves 4

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

555Calories
40 gProtein
18 gFat
59 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 10 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Couscous1 cup cooked (157g)176
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Red Onion1 medium (110g)44
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cumin1 tsp ground (2.1g)8
Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Peppermintnot in our table0
Coriandernot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By jamieoliver. Recipe from Open Recipes.

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.

  1. Carrot + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together777 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + peppertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together27,047 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + minttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Olive + cumintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,853 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, lemon, onion, carrot, olive, cumin, pepper):

  1. Parsleyfits better
  2. Thymefits better
  3. Corianderfits better
  4. Mintthe original

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