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
Cut the chicken apart at the joints and remove as much fat as possible.
Cover the chicken with cold water and let it stand for 30 minutes.
Make the broth
Place the chicken on the stove and heat slowly.
Add salt, peppercorns, and the small onion when heating.
Simmer until the meat is cooked from the bones.
Finish and serve
Strain the broth before serving.
Remove the fat and add a little well-cooked rice.
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).
-
Chicken + oniontop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together17,814 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
-
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
- Old chicken
- Supplies the meat, bones and collagen that give the broth its body and flavor.
- Well-cooked rice
- Adds body and thickness to the finished broth as it softens.
- Small onion
- Adds aromatic sweetness and savory depth to the broth as it simmers.
The step that matters
Simmer until the meat is cooked from the bones. Simmering gently rather than boiling keeps the broth clear and lets collagen and flavor extract slowly. A hard boil emulsifies fat into the liquid and clouds it.
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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