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Balsamic Chicken & Peach Salad

Low-fat yet full of flavour

By bbcgoodfood · From Open Recipes · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and 115 recipes mention both. Both carry 2,6-nonadienal, which smells cucumber, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4
Prep35 min

Ingredients

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Place the chicken breasts in a shallow dish and spoon in about half of the balsamic vinegar, turning to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

  2. Heat a dry nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Lift the chicken from the dish, letting excess vinegar drip off, and cook for 6 to 7 minutes per side until the thickest part reaches 165°F (74°C).

  3. Transfer the chicken to a board, rest for 5 minutes, then slice it into thick strips.

  4. Halve the peaches, remove the stones, and cut each half into thin wedges.

  5. Divide the baby spinach and basil leaves between four plates.

  6. Top each plate with sliced chicken and peach wedges.

  7. Drizzle the remaining balsamic vinegar over the salads just before serving.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Chicken + peachtop 15% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

  2. Peach + basiltop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Spinach + basiltop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together427 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Chicken + spinachtop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,146 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

  5. Chicken + basiltop 7% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vinegar, chicken, peach, basil):

  1. Capsicumbetter flavor fit
  2. Tomatobetter flavor fit
  3. Potatobetter flavor fit
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vinegar, chicken, peach, basil. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).