Skip to main content
Main

Chicken Broth

A clear broth made by simmering a raw chicken with water, leek, celery, salt, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓
Chicken Broth

Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Chicken Broth

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Place the chicken in a stewpan.

  2. Add water, leek, celery, salt, and parsley.

  3. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until chicken is cooked through.

  4. Remove chicken, strain broth, and serve.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Leek + celerytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,093 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Leek + parsleytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together759 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Chicken + leektop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl butyrate (apple, fruity).

  5. Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,375 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

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

What each ingredient does

Raw chicken
Releases flavor and gelatin into the water, giving the broth body and savoriness.
Leek
Adds a mild, sweet aromatic flavor to the broth.
Celery
Contributes a fresh, savory aroma to the broth.

The step that matters

Simmer gently instead of boiling. Once the liquid reaches a boil, keep it at a gentle simmer. A hard rolling boil makes the broth cloudy and can toughen the chicken, while slow simmering keeps it clear and tender.

Swap the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, leek, celery):

  1. Thymefits better
  2. Tarragonfits about as well
  3. Parsleythe original
  4. Garlicfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, leek, celery. 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 chicken broth recipes

for the Sick 3with Rice 3 See all 336 →

You might also like

Chicken SoupChicken Soup156 recipesCream of Celery SoupCream of Celery Soup113 recipesCreamed ChickenCreamed Chicken89 recipesChicken PanadaChicken Panada75 recipes