Name: Creamed Chicken Soup with Rice on Toast
Ingredients: 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded; 2 tablespoons butter; 2 tablespoons flour; 2 cups chicken broth; 1 cup cooked rice; Salt and pepper to taste; Toast slices

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 ↓

Creamed Chicken Soup with Rice on Toast

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 soup

In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat.
Stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute.
Gradually add the chicken broth, stirring constantly until thickened.
Add the shredded chicken and cooked rice, and season with salt and pepper.

Serve

Serve the soup over toast.

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.

Chicken + ricetop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together4,769 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Rice + peppertop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,379 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together124,287 recipes

Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Chicken + buttertop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together13,902 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
Butter + ricetop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together9,645 recipes

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

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Butter: Melts with the flour to form a roux that thickens the broth.
Flour: Thickens the broth into a creamy soup when cooked with the butter and liquid.
Chicken broth: Forms the liquid base that thickens into the soup.
Cooked chicken: Provides the main protein and body in the soup.
Cooked rice: Adds bulk and soft texture to the soup.

The step that matters

Stirring the broth into the roux. Adding the broth gradually while stirring constantly keeps the flour smooth and evenly dispersed, so the soup thickens without lumps.

“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.

Chicken Broth257 recipes

Chicken Soup156 recipes

Creamed Chicken89 recipes

Rice Fritters84 recipes

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Creamed Chicken Soup with Rice on Toast