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Pilaff De Volaille a LA Grecque — Chicken Pilau

A Greek-style chicken pilaf cooked with butter, olive oil, onions, ham, garlic, tomatoes, peppers, broth, rice, and saffron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

Pilaff De Volaille a LA Grecque — Chicken Pilau

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the chicken

  1. Cut the chickens as for sautéing and season with salt and pepper.

  2. Fry them lightly in half butter and half olive oil.

Build the pilaf

  1. Add the sliced onions, ham, and crushed garlic; smother together for a few minutes.

  2. Add the tomatoes and sweet red peppers, then moisten with the broth.

  3. Bring to a boil, then add the rice.

  4. Cover the pan and cook in the oven at 350°F (175°C) for 20 minutes.

  5. Before serving, add a pinch of saffron.

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. 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. Pepper + clovetop 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. Pepper + garlictop 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 rich flavor as it browns and releases juices into the rice.
Carolina rice
Absorbs the broth as it cooks, forming the starchy body of the pilaf.
Chicken or veal broth
Supplies the cooking liquid that the rice absorbs, carrying savory flavor through the dish.
Onions
Soften and sweeten during smothering, building a mellow aromatic base.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that blend into the broth and season the rice.
Ham
Adds salty, savory depth as it renders into the smothered base.

The step that matters

Smothering the onions, ham, and garlic. Cooking them gently over low heat in fat softens and sweetens the onions without browning the garlic, which can turn bitter. Covering the pan traps moisture so the aromatics soften evenly.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Parsleyfits better
  3. Rosemaryfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, butter, olive, onion, ham, garlic. 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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