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Cheesy Broccoli Rice Casserole

"This creamy side dish cooks in the microwave for only 15 minutes, so it's easy to put together quickly."

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Why it works: Broccoli and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 806 recipes mention both. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

The recipe

8 servings
Prep10 min
Cook15 min

Ingredients

Contains: milk (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C) and lightly grease a 2-quart baking dish.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the cubed processed cheese, cream of chicken soup, cooked wild rice, thawed chopped broccoli, chopped onion, chopped celery, hot sauce, and black pepper. Stir until evenly mixed.

  3. Spread the mixture evenly in the prepared baking dish.

  4. Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, or until the cheese has melted and the casserole is hot and bubbling.

  5. Scatter the French-fried onions over the top and bake 3 to 5 minutes more, until the topping is golden.

  6. Let the casserole rest for 5 minutes before serving.

By allrecipes. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Broccoli + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together806 recipes

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

  2. Chicken + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together17,808 recipes

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

  3. Chicken + wild ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together175 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  4. Broccoli + oniontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,292 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Onion + celerytop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together18,506 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Flavor stand-ins for the celery

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cheese, cream, chicken, wild rice, broccoli, onion, sauce):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Celerythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cheese, cream, chicken, wild rice, broccoli, onion, sauce. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).