Skip to main content
Main

Chunky Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup Recipe

A creamy soup of chicken, sweetcorn, potatoes, and onions, thickened with cornflour.

From the NHS (UK) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sweetcorn and chicken work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and 111 recipes mention both. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The recipe

Time20 minutes

Ingredients

Contains: milk, shellfish (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Also mentioned in the method: prawn

Directions

Prepare the soup base

  1. Melt the spread in a large saucepan and gently cook the onion for 2 to 3 minutes, until starting to soften.

  2. Add the potatoes and stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer, part-covered, for about 20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender.

Add the rest and thicken

  1. Add the sweetcorn (drained if tinned), milk and chicken, and cook gently for 3 or 4 minutes, stirring often.

  2. Add the cornflour mixture and stir until thickened.

  3. Add the parsley (if using) and cook for another few moments.

Serve

  1. Ladle into bowls and serve with rolls, if having.

Recipe from the NHS (UK).

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Sweetcorn + chickentop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together111 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together34,118 recipes

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

  3. Onion + potatotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together9,019 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Potato + chickentop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Potato + parsleytop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together2,855 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, giving the soup body and a chunky, hearty texture.
Cornflour
Starch that swells when heated with liquid, thickening the soup so it becomes creamy.
Milk
Adds richness and creaminess, softening the flavour of the stock.
Sweetcorn
Adds natural sweetness and a juicy, tender bite.
Chicken
Adds protein and savoury substance, making the soup filling.

The step that matters

Adding the cornflour mixture. Cornflour must be mixed with cold water first and added to hot liquid while stirring, otherwise it clumps. Starch only thickens fully once the liquid is hot enough to gelatinise it.

Flavor stand-ins for the parsley

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (spread, onion, potato, sweetcorn, chicken, milk, pepper):

  1. Garlicbetter flavor fit
  2. Thymebetter flavor fit
  3. Gingerabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Parsleythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spread, onion, potato, sweetcorn, chicken, milk, pepper. 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).

“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.

You might also like

Illustration of Chicken BrothIllustrationChicken Broth257 recipesIllustration of Potato CroquettesIllustrationPotato Croquettes255 recipesIllustration of Chicken SoupIllustrationChicken Soup156 recipesIllustration of Creamed ChickenIllustrationCreamed Chicken89 recipes