Why it works: Beetroot and hazelnut share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 23 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 2Ingredients
Contains: tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)
Directions
Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.
Heat a grill pan or skillet over medium-high heat. Brush the flattened chicken breasts with 1 tbsp of the olive oil and season nothing beyond what is listed.
Grill the chicken for 5 to 6 minutes per side until it reaches 165°F (74°C) in the thickest part. Rest on a board for 3 minutes, then slice.
Meanwhile, coarsely grate the peeled beetroot and the peeled red apple. Toss the apple with the lemon juice to keep it from browning.
Wash the beetroot leaves, pat dry and roughly shred them. Add them to a large bowl with the grated beetroot, apple and rocket leaves.
In a small bowl, whisk the red wine vinegar with the remaining 1 tbsp olive oil. Pour over the slaw and toss to combine.
Scatter the roughly chopped toasted hazelnuts over the slaw. Pile the sliced chicken on top and serve while the chicken is still warm.
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.
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Beetroot + hazelnuttop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together23 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Apple + red winetop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together147 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
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Chicken + olivetop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,796 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid hexyl ester (sweet, green).
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Red wine + vinegartop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together569 recipes
Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).
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Olive + vinegartop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together10,843 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, apple, beetroot, hazelnut, red wine, vinegar):
- Pearbetter flavor fit
- Grapebetter flavor fit
- Plumbetter flavor fit
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, apple, beetroot, hazelnut, red wine, vinegar. 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).
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