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Arroz Y Frijoles Favoritos

A stew of pinto beans, beef, and vegetables served over rice.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and garlic match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Arroz Y Frijoles Favoritos

Time50 to 60 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the beans

  1. Rinse beans.

  2. Soak beans overnight in 4 cups water, or bring to a boil, boil for 1 minute, remove from heat, and let stand 1 hour.

  3. Drain beans; set aside.

Make the stew

  1. Cook meat and vegetables in oil in large skillet until meat is well browned.

  2. Stir in salsa, beans, salt and water; bring mixture to a boil.

  3. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer 50 to 60 minutes, or until beef and beans are tender and sauce is thickened.

Serve

  1. Ladle into bowls and top each with a mound of fluffy rice.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

523Calories
15 gProtein
15 gFat
84 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 9 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Pinto Bean1/2 cup (86g) canned122
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Celery1 stalk (40g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Waternot 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.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Beans + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,017 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Beans + garlictop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,935 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Beans + celerytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,159 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  5. Celery + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4,668 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Dry pinto beans
Hold their shape while softening, thickening the stew and adding body to the sauce.
Chuck roast
Becomes tender during long simmering, giving the stew its meaty texture and rich flavor.
Green chile salsa
Supplies liquid and acidity that flavor the stew and help form its thickened sauce.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks, building savory depth in the base of the stew.
Celery
Softens during cooking, adding aromatic, savory flavor to the stew base.
Vegetable oil
Conducts heat for browning the meat and vegetables, which builds deeper flavor.

The step that matters

Browning the meat well. Browning creates savory, deeply flavored crust compounds through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the skillet or stopping early steams the beef instead, leaving the stew flat in flavor.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (beans, onion, celery, garlic, rice):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against beans, onion, celery, garlic, rice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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