Name: French Quarter Chicken Jambalaya
Ingredients: 1 lb/450 g skinned, boned chicken cut into 1-inch/25-mm cubes; 1/4 tsp/1.2 mL Cajun Pepper (Watkins); 1 tbsp/15 mL Garlic & Parsley Grapeseed Oil (Watkins); 1 lb/450 g andouille or kielbasa sausage, cut into 1/2-inch/12-mm slices; 1 cup/250 mL coarsely chopped onion; 1 cup/250 mL coarsely chopped celery; 1 cup/250 mL coarsely chopped green pepper; 1 can (16 oz/454 g) diced tomatoes, undrained; 1 tbsp/15 mL Chicken Soup Base (Watkins); 1-1/2 cups/375 mL water; 1 can (6 oz/170 g) tomato paste; 3/4 cup/180 mL uncooked regular rice; 1 tbsp/15 mL Paprika (Watkins); 1 tsp/5 mL Chicken Seasoning (Watkins); 1 tsp/5 mL Thyme (Watkins); 1 tsp/5 mL Garlic Flakes (Watkins); 1/4 to 1/2 tsp/1.2 to 2.5 mL Cajun Pepper (Watkins); 1 Dash of Basil

Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. 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.

Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Parsley + celerytop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,810 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + parsleytop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together34,122 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + parsleytop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together9,308 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

Chicken: Browning gives savoury flavour, and the long simmer makes the meat tender and moist.
Andouille or kielbasa sausage: Browning renders fat and adds smoky, savoury flavour to the pot.
Onion: Softened in the pot, it adds sweetness and a flavour base for the dish.
Regular rice: Absorbs the cooking liquid as it simmers, becoming tender and thickening the dish.
Diced tomatoes: Add acidity and liquid, building the tomato-based sauce that the rice cooks in.
Tomato paste: Concentrates tomato flavour and thickens the cooking liquid, adding body.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken and sausage. Browning creates flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pot or skipping the browning leaves the meat pale and bland, and the browned bits left in the pot add depth when the vegetables are scraped up.

Swap the onion

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

Carrotfits better
Capsicumfits better
Okrafits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, garlic, parsley, celery, tomato, 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
Pork	100g cooked	242
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Grapeseed Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	120
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Basil	5 leaves fresh (2.5g)	1
Soup	not in our table	0
Water	not in our table	0

French Quarter Chicken Jambalaya