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Plain Chicken Soup

A clear broth made from simmered chicken, rice, onion, celery, and parsley.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Celery and parsley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,810 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓

Plain Chicken Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Make the broth

  1. Place the chicken pieces in a large saucepan with 4 quarts of cold water.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for 3 hours.

  3. Add the onion, celery, parsley, and rice, and simmer for another hour.

  4. Strain the soup and let it sit until the grease rises to the top.

  5. Remove the meat, bones, and vegetables from the strainer.

Finish the soup

  1. Press the rice through a sieve and stir it into the soup.

  2. Season with salt and pepper, and heat again before serving.

  3. For a thicker soup, mix 2 tablespoons of cold stock with 1 tablespoon of cornstarch, stir into the soup, and cook for 10 minutes.

  4. Optional: Add diced pieces of chicken breast and a little cream before serving.

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. Celery + parsleytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,810 recipes

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

  2. Parsley + peppertop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together34,122 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Onion + celerytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,518 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Chicken
Gives the broth its meaty flavor as it simmers slowly in water.
Rice
Pressed through a sieve, it adds body and lightly thickens the soup.
Cornstarch
Optional starch that thickens the soup when mixed with liquid and heated.
Cream
Optional fat that adds richness and a softer, smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Let the soup sit to separate the grease. Chilling or resting lets fat rise to the surface so it can be skimmed off. Skipping this leaves the broth greasy. Cornstarch must be mixed with cold liquid first, otherwise it clumps instead of thickening evenly.

Swap the onion

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

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

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