Name: Liberian Jollof Rice
Ingredients: 1 pound chicken; 1 can mixed vegetables; salt / pepper to taste; 1 can tomato paste; 1 large onion; 3 chicken bullion cubes; 1/2 lb. cubed salt pork,; 3 cups rice; ham or beef; hot peppe

Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. 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.

Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,417 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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).
Tomato + oniontop 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

Rice: Forms the bulk of the dish and absorbs the cooking liquid as it simmers.
Tomato paste: Adds concentrated color, sweetness and acidity to the cooking liquid.
Chicken: Provides the main protein, and browning it adds savory flavor to the pot.
Salt pork: Adds fat and savory depth to the base, flavoring the rice as it cooks.
Onion: Builds aromatic sweetness as it softens in the frying pan.

The step that matters

Cook the rice slowly. Rice absorbs liquid and can scorch or turn mushy if heat is too high or the pot is stirred poorly. Slow cooking lets the grains hydrate evenly.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, tomato, pork, rice, ham):

Capsicumfits better
Potatofits better
Asparagusfits about as well
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, tomato, pork, rice, ham. 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
Beef	100g cooked	250
Pork	100g cooked	242
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Vegetable	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0

Liberian Jollof Rice