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 ↓
Stewed Chicken
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the chicken
Moisten baking soda with a little water and rub it all over the chicken's skin.
Rinse the chicken thoroughly with a clean cloth.
Cut up the chicken and wash it in cold water.
Simmer
Place the chicken in a kettle of boiling salted water.
Boil rapidly, then reduce heat to a gentle simmer for 1.5 hours if young, or 4 to 5 hours if old.
Skim the surface several times during simmering.
When the chicken is done, the water should be nearly cooked out.
Lay stale bread slices over the chicken and steam for a few minutes.
Remove the bread to a hot platter and place the chicken on top.
Keep the chicken warm.
If necessary, cook the broth down further.
Make the gravy and serve
Mix flour with a little cold milk and add slowly to the broth.
Cook the mixture thoroughly.
Add a little milk and salt to taste, then bring to a boil.
Stir in chopped parsley and pour over the chicken and bread.
Serve immediately, or on a platter with a border of boiled rice or baking powder biscuits.
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).
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Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,374 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Parsley + ricetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,762 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Milk + breadtop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together11,466 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-undecenal (sweet).
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Flour + parsleytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together16,675 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Chicken
- Provides the meat and the broth that becomes the base of the gravy.
- Baking soda
- Alkaline rub that helps the chicken skin brown and tender meat stay moist.
- Flour
- Thickens the cooking broth into a smooth gravy when cooked through.
- Stale bread slices
- Soaks up the savory broth as the chicken steams on top, softening the bread.
- Cold milk
- Mixed with flour first so it blends smoothly into the broth, adding richness.
The step that matters
Cook the flour mixture thoroughly. Flour must be cooked long enough for its starch to swell and thicken the broth fully; undercooked flour leaves a raw, pasty taste and a thin texture.
Swap the parsley
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, flour, milk, bread, rice):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Turmericfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Parsleythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, flour, milk, bread, rice. 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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