Why it works: Corn and wild rice work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and 19 recipes mention both. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 10Ingredients
Contains: milk, wheat (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.
Heat the olive oil in a large soup pot over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, pasilla peppers and jalapeno peppers and cook 5 minutes, stirring, until softened.
Add the diced mushrooms and cook 4 minutes, stirring, until they release their liquid and begin to brown.
Add the dry wild rice and chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook 35 minutes until the rice is nearly tender.
Stir in the corn kernels and diced cooked chicken. Simmer uncovered 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the chicken is heated through to 165°F (74°C) and the rice is tender.
In a small bowl, whisk the cornstarch with the water until smooth.
Stir the cornstarch mixture into the simmering soup and cook 2 minutes until slightly thickened.
Stir in the half-and-half and warm gently for 2 minutes without boiling. Serve hot.
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.
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Corn + wild ricetop 7% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together19 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
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Mushroom + chickentop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,171 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-butyl acetate (fruity, banana).
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Carrot + peppertop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together14,555 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Carrot + corntop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together793 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Onion + chickentop 4% of all pairsAroma overlapmoderateMentioned together17,808 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the jalapeno
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (olive, carrot, onion, pepper, mushroom, chicken, corn):
- Garlicbetter flavor fit
- Thymebetter flavor fit
- Celerybetter flavor fit
- Jalapenothe original
Fit is the average pairing score against olive, carrot, onion, pepper, mushroom, chicken, corn. 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).
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