Name: Chicken and Black Bean Rice Salad
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked rice, cooled to room temperature; 1 cup cooked black beans; 1 cup chopped fresh tomato; 1 cup cooked chicken breast cubes; 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese; 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley; 1/3 cup prepared Italian dressing*; Lettuce leaves

Why it works: Rice and chicken match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,569 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

2 cups cooked rice, cooled to room temperature
1 cup cooked black beans
1 cup chopped fresh tomato
1 cup cooked chicken breast cubes
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded Cheddar cheese
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
1/3 cup prepared Italian dressing*
Lettuce leaves

Directions

Combine rice, beans, tomato, chicken, cheese and parsley in a large bowl.
Pour dressing over the rice mixture and toss lightly.
Serve on lettuce leaves.

Recipe from the Recipes Wiki (Fandom).

This recipe comes from the Recipes Wiki on Fandom and is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Our formatting and summaries are shared under the same licence.

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

Rice + chickentop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together4,569 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Beans + tomatotop 2% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,711 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Beans + lettucetop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together499 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Rice + beanstop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together942 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Rice + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Aroma overlapstrong

Mentioned together2,990 recipes

Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked rice: Forms the bulk of the salad and carries the dressing.
Black beans: Add body and substance, giving the salad a hearty texture.
Cooked chicken breast: Supplies the protein and a firm, meaty bite.
Cheddar cheese: Adds fat and savory flavor that rounds out the dressing.
Italian dressing: Provides moisture, acidity and seasoning that coat the other ingredients.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (rice, beans, tomato, chicken, cheddar cheese, lettuce):

Cuminbetter flavor fit
Celerybetter flavor fit
Corianderbetter flavor fit
Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, beans, tomato, chicken, cheddar cheese, lettuce. 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).

“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.