Name: Eula Mae's Chicken and Ham Jambalaya
Yield: Makes 6 to 8 servings
Ingredients: 1 fryer chicken (about 3 pounds), boned, skinned, and cut into 1-inch cubes, or 1 1/2 pounds skinless, boneless breasts and thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes; 1 teaspoon salt; 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper; 1/8 teaspoon cayenne; 2 tablespoons vegetable oil; 1/2 pound cooked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes; 2 cups chopped yellow onions; 1 cup seeded and chopped green bell peppers; 1 cup chopped celery; 4 garlic cloves, peeled; 3 cups chicken broth; One 16-ounce can whole tomatoes, chopped, liquid reserved; 1/2 cup chopped green onions (green part only); 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves; 2 pounds medium-size shrimp, peeled and deveined; 1 teaspoon Tabasco brand pepper sauce; 2 cups long-grain white rice, rinsed and drained

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 ↓

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.

Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together29,058 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together14,076 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Celery + tomatotop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together3,377 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Pepper + clovetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together17,451 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).
Pepper + celerytop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together16,012 recipes

Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the clove

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

Thymefits better
Parsleyfits better
Basilfits better
Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, ham, onion, celery, garlic, tomato. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Pork	100g cooked	242
Rice	1 cup cooked (158g) white	206
Chicken	100g cooked	165
Olive Oil	1 tbsp (14g)	119
Shrimp	100g cooked	99
Onion	1 medium (110g)	44
Green Bell Pepper	1 medium (119g)	31
Tomato	1 medium (123g)	22
Black Pepper	1 tsp ground (2.3g)	6
Cayenne	1 tsp (1.8g)	6
Celery	1 stalk (40g)	6
Garlic	1 clove (3g)	4
Parsley	1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)	1
Salt	1 tsp (6g)	0
Sauce	not in our table	0

Eula Mae's Chicken and Ham Jambalaya