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Ají De Gallina

A creamy chicken stew with chili, pecans, Parmesan, and evaporated milk served over rice, garnished with potatoes, eggs, and olives.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

Ají De Gallina

Serves 8
Timeabout 20 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken and sauce base

  1. Boil chicken in salted water with the stock cube.

  2. Remove bones and break into bite-size pieces, keeping the resulting stock.

  3. In a saucepan, heat oil and sauté the onion, garlic, and finely chopped chili peppers, adding salt and pepper.

  4. Fry until the onions are cooked and golden.

  5. Soak the bread in two cups of the chicken stock. Place the soaked bread in a blender for a couple of minutes. Add the resulting liquid to the saucepan.

  6. Cook slowly for ten minutes, stirring to thicken.

Cook the rice

  1. While the Ají de Gallina is cooking, boil the rice: first fry the garlic for a couple of seconds, then add the rice and salt, then add water.

  2. When the water starts to boil, let the rice cook in a closed pot very slowly for about 20 minutes or until the water has completely evaporated.

Finish and serve

  1. Add the chopped pecans, grated cheese, and chicken pieces to the Ají de Gallina. Cook until it has a thick creamy texture.

  2. About five minutes before serving, add the evaporated milk and continue cooking on low heat.

  3. Serve over the boiled rice and garnish with halved potatoes, eggs quartered lengthwise, and olives.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1712Calories
82 gProtein
61 gFat
210 gCarbs

Counts 16 of 17 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 16 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Pecans1 oz (28g / ~19 halves)196
Chicken100g cooked165
Potato1 medium (173g) baked161
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Parmesan Cheese1 oz (28g)110
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Clove1 tsp ground (2g)7
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Olive1 large (4g)4
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Seednot 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 Wikibooks Cookbook.

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 + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Olive + garlictop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together25,665 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Chicken + garlictop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,850 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  5. Garlic + peppertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,090 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
Provides the main protein and body of the dish, shredded into the sauce.
Bread
Soaked and blended, it thickens the sauce to a smooth, body-rich base.
Pecans
Add richness and fat, giving the sauce a creamy, nutty texture.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savory depth and helps the sauce turn thick and creamy.
Evaporated milk
Adds creaminess and smooth moisture to the finished sauce.
Onion
Softens and browns in oil, building sweetness and a flavor base.

The step that matters

Cooking the rice until the water fully evaporates. Cooking slowly in a closed pot lets the rice absorb all the water gently. Too much heat can scorch the bottom or leave the grains unevenly cooked.

Swap the pecans

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, olive, onion, clove, garlic, pepper, bread):

  1. Chickpeafits better
  2. Beansfits better
  3. Lentilsfits better
  4. Pecansthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, olive, onion, clove, garlic, pepper, bread. 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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