Why it works: Chicken and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,769 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Rice Pilau
Ingredients
Directions
Cook
Boil the chicken pieces in 1 quart of water until nearly tender.
Add 2 cups of washed rice to the pot.
Reduce heat and let it boil slowly, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking.
Serve
When done, loosen the sides and bottom with a knife.
Tilt the pot and have someone assist in sliding the rice pilau into a serving dish.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
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.
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Adds meat and savory flavor to the cooking water that the rice absorbs.
- Rice
- Absorbs the cooking liquid and softens, forming the body of the pilaf.
The step that matters
Reduce heat and stir occasionally. Rice starch settles and sticks to the bottom of the pot as it cooks, and can scorch if the heat is too high or the rice is left unstirred. Gentle heat and occasional stirring keep the grains loose and the bottom from burning.
“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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