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Chicken Soup with Rice

A hearty soup made with chicken, rice, vegetables, and seasonings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Carrot and celery match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,173 recipes. Both carry myristicin, which smells spice, warm. The science ↓

Chicken Soup with Rice

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the broth

  1. Combine the chicken and water in a large pot.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Add the onion, carrots, and celery.

  4. Simmer for 1 hour.

Add the rice and finish

  1. Remove the chicken from the pot.

  2. Shred the meat.

  3. Return the shredded meat to the pot.

  4. Stir in the rice.

  5. Cook until the rice is tender, about 20 minutes.

  6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Carrot + celerytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,173 recipes

    Shared aroma: myristicin (spice, warm).

  2. Celery + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together16,012 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  3. Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,769 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  4. Carrot + peppertop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,555 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + carrottop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together21,601 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Whole chicken
Provides the meat and flavor that give the broth its body and savory taste.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens as it cooks, thickening the soup and adding starchy body.
Onion
Adds aromatic sweetness and depth to the broth as it simmers.
Carrots
Add natural sweetness and some body to the broth as they cook.
Celery
Contributes aromatic, savory flavor to the broth during simmering.

The step that matters

Cook until the rice is tender. Rice keeps absorbing liquid after it is added, so it can swell and turn the soup thick or mushy if cooked too long. Checking tenderness near the stated time helps keep the texture right.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chicken, rice, carrot, celery, pepper):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits better
  3. Potatofits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, carrot, celery, pepper. 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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