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Chicken Soup

A hearty broth made with chicken, rice, potatoes, milk, flour, salt, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Chicken Soup

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 Soup

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the chicken

  1. Dress and wash the chicken thoroughly.

Make the soup

  1. Boil the chicken in 1 gallon of water for 3 hours.

  2. When almost done, add ½ cup of rice and 4 small potatoes.

  3. Thicken the soup with ½ pint of milk mixed with 4 teaspoons of flour.

  4. 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.

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.

  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 + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together851 recipes

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

  3. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  4. Chicken + potatotop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,756 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-decenal (green, must).

  5. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 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

Chicken
Gives the broth its main flavor and body as it simmers for hours.
Rice
Absorbs liquid and softens, adding body to the soup.
Potatoes
Break down slightly as they cook, adding starch and thickness to the soup.
Flour
Thickens the milk mixture, giving the soup a smoother, heavier texture.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness to the broth.

The step that matters

Thicken with milk and flour. Flour mixed into cold milk can clump, so it should be blended smoothly before adding it to hot soup. Stirring it in gradually and keeping the soup at a gentle simmer helps the starch thicken evenly instead of forming lumps.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Capsicumfits about as well
  2. Potatothe original
  3. Asparagusfits less well
  4. Okrafits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against chicken, rice, milk, flour, 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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