Name: Nigerian Jollof Rice
Ingredients: 1 (2 1/2 to 3 lb.) broiler-fryer chicken; 2 tbsp. peanut or cooking oil; 1 medium onion, chopped; 1 (16 oz.) can tomatoes, cut up; 1 1/4 c. chicken broth; 1 bay leaf; 1/2 tsp. ground ginger, ground cinnamon, and dried thyme, crushed; 1/2 tsp. salt; 1/4 tsp. ground red pepper; 1 c. long grain rice; 1 tbsp. snipped parsley

Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. 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.

Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Thyme + peppertop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tomato + thymetop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,370 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Cinnamon + thymetop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together369 recipes

Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).
Onion + thymetop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,171 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken: Browning in oil builds flavour in the drippings, and slow simmering keeps the meat moist.
Long grain rice: Absorbs the seasoned cooking liquid as it simmers, becoming tender and fluffy.
Tomatoes: Provide acidity and moisture, and their sugars help the sauce deepen in colour.
Onion: Softens and adds sweetness and aromatic base flavour to the sauce.
Chicken broth: Supplies the liquid that the rice cooks in, carrying seasoning throughout the dish.

The step that matters

Covering the rice with liquid before the second simmer. Rice that sits above the liquid cooks unevenly and stays hard. Making sure all grains are submerged lets them hydrate and cook through evenly.

Swap the peanut

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

Chickpeafits better
Beansfits better
Lentilsfits better
Peanutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, onion, tomato, ginger, cinnamon, thyme, pepper. 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
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Peanut	1 oz (28g)	161
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Chili	1 tsp (2.7g)	8
Cinnamon	1 tsp ground (2.6g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2
Ginger	1 tsp grated fresh (2g)	2
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Nigerian Jollof Rice