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Chicken and Rice Soup

A light soup of rice simmered in chicken stock, finished with cream and optional seasoning, served with toasted bread strips.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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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 and Rice Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the soup

  1. Simmer the rice and chicken stock together gently for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture and return the stock to the pot.

  3. Add the cream and season lightly with salt and pepper if desired.

Finish and serve

  1. Bring to a boil and serve with thin strips of toasted bread.

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

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

  2. Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,379 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Rice + breadtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,259 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  4. Chicken + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,258 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity).

  5. Pepper + breadtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken stock
Forms the liquid base and carries the savoury flavour of the soup.
Rice
Releases starch while simmering, giving the soup body and a slightly thicker texture.
Cream
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Boiling after the cream is added. Cream contains fat and proteins that can separate or curdle when it is heated hard or for too long. Bringing the soup up to a boil with care helps keep it smooth and creamy.

“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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