Why it works: Rice and chicken are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Chicken Hash with Rice Toast
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the rice
Boil 1 cup of rice the night before and refrigerate it.
The next morning, cut the rice into ½ inch slices.
Toast and plate
Rub warm butter over each slice and toast them until golden brown.
Arrange the toast on a warm platter.
Make the hash and serve
Pick the meat from the leftover chicken bones and chop it finely.
In a frying pan, combine the chopped chicken with butter and a little water to moisten.
Season with pepper and coarse sea salt, and heat until hot throughout.
Serve the chicken hash over the rice toast immediately.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
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.
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Rice + chickentop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,379 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + chickentop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together13,902 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Rice + buttertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together9,645 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Chicken + peppertop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,958 recipes
Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rice
- Chilling the cooked rice firms its starch so the slices hold together and toast crisply.
- Warm butter
- Fat that carries heat into the rice surface, promoting even browning and a rich flavor.
- Leftover cooked chicken
- Provides the main protein; the hash is built around its shredded, finely chopped meat.
The step that matters
Toasting the chilled rice slices. Rice must be well chilled and sliced evenly so it firms up and browns on the outside without drying through. Uneven slices or under-chilled rice can crumble or toast unevenly.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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