Name: Sticky Chicken & Blood Orange Stir Fry
Yield: Serves 1 - 0
Ingredients: 2 handfuls of spinach leaves, roughly chopped (this may seem like a lot but it wilts down); finely grated zest and juice of 1 blood orange; 1 tbsp clear honey; 1 tsp soy sauce; 2.5cm/1in piece root ginger , peeled, then chopped to a pulp or grated; 1 garlic clove , finely chopped or grated; portion of stir fry rice noodles (such as Sharwood's or Blue Dragon); 1 tbsp sesame oil; 1 tbsp vegetable oil; 1 large skinless chicken breast, sliced into strips; sprinkling of crushed dried chilli flakes

Why it works: Spinach and sesame match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 203 recipes. Both carry 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol, which smells clove, smoky. 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.

Spinach + sesametop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together203 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Spinach + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together2,435 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Rice + sesametop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together984 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Ginger + sesametop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,531 recipes

Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Orange + gingertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,833 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spinach, honey, sauce, ginger, garlic, rice, sesame):

Limefits better
Avocadofits better
Coconutfits better
Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spinach, honey, sauce, ginger, garlic, rice, sesame. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Sesame	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Honey	1 tbsp (21g)	64
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Soy Sauce	1 tbsp (15ml)	9
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Clove	1 tsp ground (2g)	7
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2

Sticky Chicken & Blood Orange Stir Fry