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Jambalaya of Chicken and Rice

A fried chicken, tomato, pork, onion, and rice mixture seasoned with salt and cayenne.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Chicken and pork match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,417 recipes. Both carry 2-furfurylthiol, which smells coffee, roasted. The science ↓

Jambalaya of Chicken and Rice

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Fry the chicken, tomatoes, pork, and onion together in a pan until cooked.

  2. Boil the rice in a separate pot until it swells.

  3. Add the boiled rice to the chicken mixture and fry until everything is lightly browned.

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. Chicken + porktop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,417 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).

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

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

  3. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 recipes

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

  4. Tomato + peppertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,923 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Tomato + oniontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,633 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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 savoury flavour as it cooks down with the other ingredients.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and swells, forming the starchy body of the dish.
Tomatoes
Add acidity and moisture that help build the sauce base.
Onion
Adds sweetness and aroma as it softens and browns in the pan.
Pickled pork
Contributes salty, savoury fat and depth of flavour.

The step that matters

Frying the rice mixture until lightly browned. Browning the rice and the surrounding ingredients develops savoury flavour through the Maillard reaction. Cooking too briefly leaves the dish flat, while cooking too long can scorch the starch and sugars on the pan bottom.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, tomato, pork, rice, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Potatofits better
  3. Asparagusfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, tomato, pork, rice, 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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