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Chili Santa Cruz

A spicy chili made with shark fillets, tomatoes, and corn tortillas served over rice.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Jalapeno and oregano work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and 253 recipes mention both. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Time30 minutes

Ingredients

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

Also mentioned in the method: tortillas, fish

Directions

Make the sauce

  1. Heat oil in Dutch oven or large saucepan.

  2. Add onion and cook over medium heat until soft but not brown.

  3. Stir in garlic, jalapenos, paprika, cumin and oregano.

  4. Cook over low heat, stirring, 2 to 3 minutes.

  5. Add tomatoes and chicken broth.

  6. Simmer, covered, 30 minutes.

Add fish and serve

  1. Meanwhile, cover tortillas with warm water; let stand 10 to 15 minutes.

  2. Drain tortillas; tear into small pieces.

  3. Add fish and tortillas to tomato mixture.

  4. Simmer 10 minutes.

  5. Serve over fluffy rice.

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.

  1. Jalapeno + oreganotop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together253 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Cumin + oreganotop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together983 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together29,030 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  4. Oregano + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,767 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  5. Cumin + tomatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,272 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Onion
Softened without browning, it builds a sweet, mellow base for the sauce.
Corn tortillas
Soaked and torn, they thicken the sauce and add body.
Shark fillets
Cubed fish that cooks in the simmering sauce and becomes tender and flaky.
Tomatoes
Provide the liquid base and acidity that carry the chili flavors.
Jalapenos
Add heat and a fresh, sharp pepper aroma to the sauce.

The step that matters

Simmer the fish gently. Fish protein toughens and dries when boiled hard, so keep the sauce at a gentle simmer for the final 10 minutes so the cubes stay tender and moist.

Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, tomato, chicken, corn):

  1. Corianderbetter flavor fit
  2. Basilbetter flavor fit
  3. Thymebetter flavor fit
  4. Jalapenothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against onion, garlic, cumin, oregano, tomato, chicken, corn. 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.

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