Why it works: Chicken and rice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 4,569 recipes mention both. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
The recipe
Serves 6Ingredients
Contains: milk (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.
Chop the onion, carrots, celery and zucchini into bite-sized pieces, about 15 minutes.
Add the water and chicken bouillon cube to a slow cooker and stir until the cube dissolves.
Add the chopped onion, carrots, celery and zucchini to the slow cooker.
Add the Rotel tomatoes with their liquid, the shredded cooked chicken and the cooked rice, then stir to combine.
Cover and cook on low for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours, until the vegetables are tender and the soup is steaming hot throughout, at least 165°F (74°C).
Stir in the cubed Velveeta until fully melted and smooth, about 10 minutes with the lid on, then 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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Chicken + ricetop 2% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together4,569 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together10,172 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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Celery + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,375 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Carrot + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together3,597 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).
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Rice + tomatotop 3% of all pairsAroma overlapstrongMentioned together2,990 recipes
Shared aroma: trans,trans-2,4-nonadienal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
Flavor stand-ins for the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, carrot, celery, tomato, cheese):
- Capsicumbetter flavor fit
- Potatobetter flavor fit
- Onionthe original
- Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, carrot, celery, tomato, cheese. 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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