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Pilau or Pilloff

A chicken pilaf with mangoes, onions, raisins, almonds, and cloves cooked in butter or ghee.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,781 recipes. Both carry 2-nonanone, which smells fruity, floral. The science ↓

Pilau or Pilloff

Ingredients

Directions

Braise the chicken

  1. Truss the chicken as for boiling and fry it in ⅓ cup of butter or ghee until lightly browned.

  2. Add the mangoes and onions, and fry gently for 10 to 15 minutes.

  3. Barely cover with white stock or water, add the cloves and salt to taste.

  4. Simmer gently for 30 minutes, then transfer to a baking dish, baste with hot ghee, and roast gently for nearly an hour.

Cook the rice

  1. Meanwhile, boil the rice in the stock until tender, then strain and reduce the stock by rapid boiling.

  2. In a small pan, combine the rice with 1 tablespoon of butter, raisins, and almonds.

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. Raisin + almondtop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  2. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,814 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Rice + mangotop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

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 flavours the stock as it simmers and roasts.
Butter or ghee
Fat that browns the chicken and carries flavour, and is used to baste for a rich surface.
Rice
Absorbs the stock as it cooks, giving the pilaf its body and texture.
Green mangoes
Adds sharp acidity that balances the sweetness of the raisins and onions.
Onions
Soften and sweeten gently in the fat, building a savoury base for the stock.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty richness contrasting the soft rice.

The step that matters

Reduce the stock by rapid boiling after straining the rice. Boiling off excess liquid concentrates the stock's flavour and leaves the rice dry and separate rather than soggy. Rapid boiling reduces the liquid quickly, so it must be watched to avoid scorching.

Swap the raisin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, butter, rice, mango, onion, almond, egg):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, butter, rice, mango, onion, almond, egg. 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.

More pilaf recipes

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