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Sweet & Sour Chicken

This homemade sweet and sour sauce is so much better than a takeaway. Great with rice or noodles

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 14 ingredients
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Sweet & Sour Chicken

Why it works: Sesame and sunflower match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 172 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Sweet & Sour Chicken

Serves 4
Cook20 min

Ingredients

Directions

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

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

410Calories
33 gProtein
18 gFat
23 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Sesame1 tbsp (14g)120
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Carrot1 medium (61g)25
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Soy Sauce1 tbsp (15ml)9
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Vinegar1 tbsp (15ml) distilled3
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Sunflower Oilnot 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 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.

  1. Sesame + sunflowertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together172 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  3. Carrot + clovetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,873 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sesame + garlictop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,000 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Sunflower + carrottop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together279 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, sauce, sesame, sunflower, pepper, carrot, garlic):

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, sauce, sesame, sunflower, pepper, carrot, garlic. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.