Name: Minty Asian Chicken Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Yield: Serves 4
Ingredients: 250g pack thin rice noodles; 2 cooked skinless chicken breasts , shredded; ½ cucumber , halved and sliced; 3 spring onions , sliced; 1 red chilli , finely chopped; 4 tbsp soy or fish sauce; zest and juice 1 lime; 2 tsp sugar; 20g pack mint , leaves only, roughly chopped

Why it works: Lime and mint match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 846 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Minty Asian Chicken Salad

Serves 4

Prep10 min

Ingredients

250g pack thin rice noodles
2 cooked skinless chicken breasts , shredded
½ cucumber , halved and sliced
3 spring onions , sliced
1 red chilli , finely chopped
4 tbsp soy or fish sauce
zest and juice 1 lime
2 tsp sugar
20g pack mint , leaves only, roughly chopped

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

500Calories

38 gProtein

4 gFat

76 gCarbs

Counts 7 of 8 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 7 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Cucumber	1/2 cup sliced (52g)	16
Lime	juice of 1 lime (44ml)	11
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Peppermint	not in our table	0

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

By bbcgoodfood. 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.

Lime + minttop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together846 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Rice + cucumbertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together734 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together884 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Cucumber + limetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together649 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, chicken, cucumber, fish sauce, lime, sugar, mint):

Capsicumfits better
Lettucefits better
Tomatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, chicken, cucumber, fish sauce, lime, sugar, mint. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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