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Plantains with Chicken Stew

A stew of chicken simmered with onions, tomatoes, potatoes, and spices, served over mashed plantains.

From the Recipes Wiki (Fandom) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Onion and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,023 recipes. Both carry 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells earthy, pea. The science ↓

Plantains with Chicken Stew

serves 6
Timeabout 1 hour

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the plantains

  1. Peel plantains or green bananas and place in a steamer or a saucepan with a rack in the bottom.

  2. Add water, leaving the bananas above the level of the water.

  3. Add salt and pepper.

  4. Bring contents to boiling point; reduce heat and steam bananas until soft.

  5. Lift bananas from the liquid and mash well.

  6. Place mashed bananas in the top of a double saucepan over simmering water until ready to serve with chicken stew.

Make the chicken stew

  1. Fry chicken in hot oil in a heavy sauté pan until brown.

  2. Add onions, tomatoes, potatoes, salt, pepper and water.

  3. Cover tightly and simmer for about 1 hour, or until chicken is tender.

Serve

  1. Pour chicken stew over plantains. Serves 6.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

622Calories
39 gProtein
18 gFat
80 gCarbs

Counts 8 of 11 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 8 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Chicken100g cooked165
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Banana1 medium (118g)105
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Plantainnot in our table0
Waternot in our table0
Stewnot 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 + potatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

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

  2. Tomato + potatotop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,798 recipes

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

  3. Pepper + tomatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. 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

Plantains or green bananas
Steam until soft and mash to form the starchy base of the dish.
Frying chicken
Browning in hot oil builds flavour, and slow simmering makes the meat tender.
Oil
Conducts high heat for browning the chicken surface.
Onion
Softens and sweetens as it cooks into the stew, adding savour to the sauce.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and body to the stew sauce as they break down.
Potatoes
Thicken the stew slightly as their starch releases during simmering.

The step that matters

Brown the chicken before simmering. Searing the chicken in hot oil creates browned surface flavour through the Maillard reaction. Skipping or rushing this leaves the stew pale and less savoury.

Swap the banana

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pepper, chicken, onion, tomato, potato):

  1. Avocadofits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Mangofits better
  4. Bananathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, chicken, onion, tomato, potato. 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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