Name: Arroz Con Pollo with Tons of Vegetables
Yield: Serves at least 4 but likely more
Ingredients: Oil; 8 skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs; Salt; 1 large onion chopped; 4 cloves garlic, minced; 3 small carrots, finely diced; 2 stalks celery, finely diced; 1 red pepper, diced; 1 green pepper, diced; 1 jalapeño pepper, seeds removed, minced; 1 1/2 teaspoons turmeric; 2 teaspoons sweet paprika; 1 teaspoon ground cumin; 2 cups long-grain white rice; 1/2 bunch kale, stem removed, leaves cut into ribbons and rubbed with salt (I like lacinato, but use whatever you like); 1 cup frozen peas, left to defrost on the counter while you make the rest of the meal; 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro; Juice of half a lemon, plus lemon wedges for garnish

Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. 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.

Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,173 recipes

Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Clove + turmerictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,876 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Celery + turmerictop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together1,356 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, pepper, turmeric):

Cuminfits better
Parsleyfits better
Thymefits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, garlic, carrot, celery, pepper, turmeric. 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
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Pea	1/2 cup (72g)	62
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Carrot	1 medium (61g)	25
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12
Turmeric	1 tsp ground (3g)	9
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cumin	1 tsp ground (2.1g)	8
Spinach	1 cup raw (30g)	7
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Cilantro	1 tbsp chopped fresh (1g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Seed	not in our table	0

Arroz Con Pollo with Tons of Vegetables