Name: Chicken and Rice Creole
Ingredients: 1 broiler-fryer chicken, cut into serving pieces; 1/4 cup flour; 2 teaspoon salt; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 3 tablespoons butter or margarine; 1 onion, sliced; 3 green onions, thinly sliced; 1 green pepper, slivered; 3 tomatoes, quartered; 3 cups chicken consomme; 1 bay leaf; 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley; 1 cup uncooked rice; 1/2 cup ham, slivered; 1/4 cup sherry

Why it works: Pepper and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 34,122 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. 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.

Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,065 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together17,923 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
Onion + tomatotop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together20,633 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Provides the main protein; browning in butter builds flavor on the surface of the pieces.
Flour: Coats the chicken so it browns well and helps thicken the pan liquid slightly.
Butter or margarine: Adds fat for browning the chicken and carries flavor from the onions and pan.
Chicken consomme: Forms the cooking liquid that moistens the chicken and cooks the rice.
Rice: Absorbs the cooking liquid and becomes the starchy base of the dish.
Tomatoes: Add acidity and body to the sauce as they break down during simmering.

The step that matters

Covered simmer with the rice. Once the rice goes in, the lid must stay on and the heat stay low so the liquid is absorbed slowly and evenly. Lifting the lid or raising the heat lets steam and liquid escape, leaving the rice unevenly cooked or dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, pepper, butter, tomato, parsley, rice):

Capsicumfits better
Okrafits better
Potatofits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, pepper, butter, tomato, parsley, 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.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Pork	100g cooked	242
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Wine	2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)	25
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Chicken and Rice Creole