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Chicken Baked in Rice

A baked dish of chicken joints, ham or bacon, veal gravy, onion, and rice covered with a flour‑water paste.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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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 ↓

Chicken Baked in Rice

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

  1. Season the chicken joints with salt and pepper.

  2. Line a pudding dish with slices of ham or bacon.

Assemble

  1. Add the veal gravy and minced onion to the dish.

  2. Fill the dish with the boiled rice, pressing it down well.

  3. Cover the dish with a paste made from flour and water.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for one hour.

  2. Serve before removing the paste.

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

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

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

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

  3. Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,433 recipes

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

  4. Pepper + oniontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

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

  5. Pepper + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 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 meat, which becomes tender and juicy as it cooks in the covered dish.
Boiled rice
Fills the dish and soaks up gravy and juices, giving the dish body and moisture.
Veal gravy
Adds moisture and savory depth, keeping the rice and chicken from drying out.
Flour and water paste
Seals the dish so steam stays inside and cooks the contents gently.
Onion
Adds aroma and savory sweetness as it softens in the gravy.
Ham or bacon
Lines the dish and adds salty, smoky flavour that seasons the rice below.

The step that matters

Covering the dish with the paste. The paste must seal the dish completely, because steam trapped inside is what cooks the chicken and rice evenly. Gaps let steam escape and can leave the dish dry.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, pepper, ham, veal, rice, flour):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, pepper, ham, veal, rice, flour. 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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