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 ↓
Jambalaya
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the chicken
Cut each chicken into four pieces and flatten them with a cleaver.
Dredge the chicken pieces with salt and pepper.
Fry the chicken pieces in butter until browned.
Keep the chicken warm in a 400°F (200°C) oven.
Cook the rice and sauce
Boil the rice in salted water for 15 minutes.
In a saucepan, fry the minced onion in ½ cup of butter until yellow.
Add the ham cut into large dice.
Add the tomatoes and drained rice.
Season with minced red pepper and salt.
Simmer until the rice is tender and the mixture is thick.
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).
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Rice + tomatotop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,065 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,923 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together20,633 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Chicken + tomatotop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together6,031 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the main meat, and frying it in butter browns the surface for flavour.
- Rice
- Forms the bulk of the dish, absorbing liquid and setting into a tender, thick mixture as it simmers.
- Tomatoes
- Add acidity, moisture and body that thicken the dish as it simmers.
- Onion
- Frying it until yellow builds sweetness and aroma in the base.
- Butter
- Adds fat for frying, which promotes browning on the chicken and onion.
- Ham
- Adds salty, savoury flavour to the mixture.
The step that matters
Simmering until the rice is tender and the mixture is thick. Rice absorbs the liquid from the tomatoes as it cooks. Stopping too early leaves it firm, while cooking too long can dry the dish or make the rice mushy.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, tomato, butter, ham, pepper):
- Capsicumfits better
- Potatofits better
- Asparagusfits about as well
- Onionthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, tomato, butter, ham, pepper. 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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