Name: Cajun Chicken, Sausage and Rice
Ingredients: 6 chicken thighs (about 2 pounds), skin removed; 1 pound lean smoked sausage, cut in 1-inch pieces; 2 green bell peppers, coarsely chopped; 2 medium yellow onions, coarsely chopped; 1 cup sliced celery; 1 can (14½ ounces) diced tomatoes, undrained; 2 teaspoons chicken-flavored bouillon granules; 4 McCormick™ bay leaves; 1 teaspoon McCormick™ thyme leaves; 1 teaspoon McCormick™ garlic powder; ½ teaspoon McCormick™ ground black pepper; 2 cups instant rice

Why it works: Onion and garlic 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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Celery + thymetop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,193 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Tomato + garlictop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together11,585 recipes

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

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken thighs: Provide meat that becomes tender and flavourful during long, slow cooking.
Smoked sausage: Adds smoky, savoury flavour that seasons the broth and vegetables as it cooks.
Instant rice: Absorbs the cooking liquid and tomatoes, turning the mixture into a thick, moist dish.
Diced tomatoes: Supply liquid and acidity that help build the sauce and blend the flavours.
Yellow onions: Soften and sweeten as they cook, forming a flavour base for the dish.

The step that matters

Adding the rice at the end. Instant rice absorbs liquid quickly, so adding it too early can make it mushy, while adding it too late leaves it firm. Stirring it in thoroughly distributes the starch and liquid so the rice cooks evenly.

Swap the onion

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

Capsicumfits better
Okrafits better
Carrotfits better
Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, celery, tomato, thyme, garlic, 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
Smoked Sausage	100g cooked	301
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Thyme	1 tsp dried (1.4g)	4
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Bay Leaf	1 leaf (0.6g)	2

Cajun Chicken, Sausage and Rice