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 Broth
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Crack the bones of the chicken well.
Combine the chicken pieces and cold water in a pot.
Make the broth
Cook slowly until the chicken is tender.
Add the salt to help extract the juices.
Remove from heat and strain the broth.
The next day, skim off the fat.
Serve
Reheat the broth and add rice if desired, or serve with toast and celery.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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).
-
Rice + celerytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,169 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
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Chicken + celerytop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,375 recipes
Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).
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 bones that release flavor and body into the broth as it simmers.
- Cold water
- Serves as the cooking liquid that slowly extracts collagen and flavor from the chicken.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the broth and helps draw flavorful juices out of the chicken.
The step that matters
Cook slowly until the chicken is tender. Gentle simmering keeps the broth clear and extracts gelatin and flavor gradually, while a hard boil makes it cloudy and greasy.
Swap the celery
The recipe marks celery as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice):
- Turmericfits better
- Garlicfits better
- Corianderfits about as well
- Celerythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, 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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