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 Water
Ingredients
Directions
Simmer the chicken
Boil the chicken in 1 quart of water until the meat falls off the bone.
Add a pinch of fine salt.
Pound the cleaned chicken, bones included.
Boil in 1 gallon of water with a little salt.
Add the rice
Tie the rice in a cloth.
Drop the rice into the pot until soft.
Remove the rice.
Reduce and strain
Reduce the liquid to 1 pint.
Strain the liquid.
Let it cool.
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.
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Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,769 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Releases flavor, gelatin and body into the water as it simmers, especially from the bones.
- Rice
- Its starch softens during simmering and helps clear the broth, so it is tied in a cloth.
The step that matters
Reduce the liquid to 1 pint. Reducing concentrates flavor and the gelatin released from bones, giving the broth body. Reducing too little leaves it thin, while reducing too far can make it overly salty or strong.
“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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