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Chicken Okra, Cocoanut

A chicken and okra stew cooked with coconut, rice, and vegetables.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Turnip and okra share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Chicken Okra, Cocoanut

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Cut the chicken into small square pieces.

  2. Dice the carrot, turnip, onion, and green pepper into half-inch squares.

Make the stew

  1. In a saucepan, melt the butter and brown the chicken and diced vegetables for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add the rice and any raw chicken bones, mix lightly, and moisten with hot water.

  3. Season with salt, cover, and boil for 30 minutes.

  4. Add the diced tomatoes and okras, then boil for another 30 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove any bones, then stir in the milk and shredded coconut.

  2. Mix well and boil for an additional 10 minutes before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Turnip + okratop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Carrot + turniptop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Tomato + okratop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together327 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Onion + okratop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together715 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provides the main protein and savory flavor as it browns and simmers into the broth.
Okras
Releases natural mucilage that gives the stew a slightly thickened, silky body.
Raw rice
Absorbs liquid and softens during boiling, adding body and thickening the stew.
Coconut
Adds richness and fat, along with a subtle sweetness and aroma.
Milk
Adds creaminess and mild sweetness, softening the stew's savory flavor.
Tomatoes
Contribute acidity and body, breaking down into the broth as it simmers.

The step that matters

Brown the chicken and vegetables before adding water. Browning builds deep flavor through the Maillard reaction. Pale, steamed pieces produce a flatter-tasting stew, so let the surfaces color well before adding the hot water.

Swap the turnip

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, carrot, onion, pepper, rice, tomato, okra):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Spinachfits about as well
  4. Turnipthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, carrot, onion, pepper, rice, tomato, okra. 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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