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
Place the cut-up chicken in an iron pot with water, onion, rice, and salt.
Bring to a boil and simmer for 2 hours.
Strain the broth through a sieve.
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).
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Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Onion + ricetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together10,433 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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 savory richness into the broth as it simmers.
- Rice
- Releases a little starch that lightly thickens the broth and softens its body.
- Onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth.
The step that matters
Simmer, don't boil hard. A vigorous boil agitates fat and proteins into the liquid, making the broth cloudy. A gentle simmer keeps it clear while still extracting flavor.
Swap the onion
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice):
- Potatofits better
- Tomatofits better
- Capsicumfits better
- Onionthe 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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