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Puerto Rican Chicken Soup

A Puerto Rican chicken soup with rice, tomatoes, and spices.

From the Wikibooks Cookbook · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Garlic and onion match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 29,058 recipes. Both carry furaneol, which smells caramel, strawberry. The science ↓

Puerto Rican Chicken Soup

2–4
Time12 minutes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Combine flour, salt, black pepper, hot pepper, oregano, and garlic in a wide, shallow bowl.

  2. Roll chicken pieces in the flour mixture.

  3. Melt margarine in a large pot over medium‑high heat.

  4. Add chicken and cook 3–5 minutes until browned.

  5. Remove chicken and set aside.

  6. Deglaze the pot with a bit of white wine or grappa, pouring drippings over the chicken.

Make the rice

  1. Add green pepper and onion to the pot.

  2. Sauté until the onion is translucent.

  3. Add rice, tomatoes, broth, and a dash of lemon juice. Stir.

  4. Salt and pepper to taste.

  5. Cover and cook over low heat for 12 minutes.

  6. Return chicken to the pot.

  7. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook until the chicken is tender.

  8. Add a bit more oregano and some chopped parsley.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1197Calories
53 gProtein
31 gFat
169 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 15 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Rice1 cup cooked (158g) white206
Chicken100g cooked165
Olive Oil1 tbsp (14g)119
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Onion1 medium (110g)44
Bell Pepper1 medium (119g)31
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Tomato1 medium (123g)22
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Oregano1 tsp dried (1.8g)5
Garlic1 clove (3g)4
Parsley1 tbsp chopped fresh (3.8g)1
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

Recipe from the Wikibooks Cookbook.

Steps grouped into stages for easier reading; the method is the source's own.

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. Garlic + oniontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  2. Garlic + tomatotop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,076 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  3. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Tomato + ricetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,065 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 breasts
Provide the main protein; flour coating helps them brown and holds juices in.
Long-grain white rice
Absorbs the broth and tomato liquid, becoming the body of the dish.
All-purpose flour
Coats the chicken, helping it brown and thickening the cooking liquid slightly.
Canned chopped tomatoes
Add acidity, moisture and savoury flavour to the rice-cooking liquid.
Onion
Sweetens as it softens, building a flavour base with the pepper and garlic.
Garlic
Adds aroma and pungency that mellows during cooking.

The step that matters

Browning the chicken. Searing the floured chicken in hot fat builds browned flavour through the Maillard reaction. Crowding the pot would steam the pieces instead, so brown them in batches if needed.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cuminfits better
  2. Turmericfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, garlic, pepper, onion, tomato, 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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