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Chicken Rice Soup

A soup made with chicken, rice, and green vegetables, served hot with zwieback.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the soup

  1. Combine the chicken and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring to a boil and simmer until the chicken is cooked through.

  3. Remove the chicken, shred the meat, and return it to the pot.

  4. Add the rice and cook until tender, about 15-20 minutes.

  5. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Serve

  1. Serve hot with a side of green vegetables and zwieback.

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. Spinach + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Rice + spinachtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together518 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).

  4. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

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

  5. Chicken + spinachtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,146 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the meat and the flavor base as it simmers in the water.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, thickening the soup and adding body.
Green vegetable
Adds color and fresh, slightly bitter flavor alongside the soup.

The step that matters

Simmer the chicken until cooked through. Chicken must reach a safe internal temperature throughout. Simmering gently keeps the meat tender and juicy rather than tough and dry.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, 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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