Chicken and leek barley soup
A warm chicken soup with soft leeks, carrots and pearl barley.
About 55 min · 405 kcal · 36 g protein per serving
Chicken, barley and leek broth
A clear broth with chicken, soft barley and sweet leeks.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 20 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm pearl barley is tender after 30 minutes
- Confirm whole breasts poach through in 14 to 16 minutes
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 1 hr 5 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 510 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 39 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains gluten. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
Cooking steps
Slice the leeks into rounds and wash them thoroughly; grit hides between the layers. Dice the carrots.
Soften the leek and carrot in the oil in a large pan over medium-low heat for 8 minutes.
Add the barley and the stock, bring to a simmer and cook, partly covered, for 30 minutes.
Lower in the whole chicken breasts and poach at a bare simmer for 14 to 16 minutes.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Lift the chicken onto a board, rest for 5 minutes, slice or shred it and return it to the pot. Finish with the parsley.
The useful detail
Poach the chicken whole and cut it afterwards. Diced raw chicken dropped into a simmering pot goes stringy in a matter of minutes, and no amount of further cooking softens it again.
Make it work for you
One serving is A deep bowl, half the pot. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Spelt instead of pearl barley
Chewier, and about 5 minutes longer.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 1 g more fat.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Leaner and firmer; give it a couple of minutes more.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 1 g more protein, about 1 g less fat.
Vegetable stock instead of chicken
Lighter, and the leeks come through more.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about 2 g less protein, about 1 g less fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A broth that is a meal rather than a starter, because the chicken and the barley between them carry both the protein and the substance.
| Energy | 510 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 39 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 67 g |
| of which sugars | 11 g |
| Fibre | 12 g |
| Sodium | 2,100 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| leek | 250 g | FDC 169246Leeks, (bulb and lower leaf-portion), raw | 153 kcal | 3.8 g |
| carrot | 160 g | FDC 170393Carrots, raw | 66 kcal | 1.5 g |
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| pearl barley | 100 g | FDC 170284Barley, pearled, raw | 352 kcal | 9.9 g |
| chicken stock | 1050 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 63 kcal | 6.7 g |
| chicken breast | 250 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 300 kcal | 56.3 g |
| parsley | 10 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 4 kcal | 0.3 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 1017 kcal | 78.4 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool it quickly, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. The FDA chart gives soups and stews 3 to 4 days. The barley keeps drinking the broth, so add stock or water when you reheat.
- In the freezer
- The same chart gives soups and stews 2 to 3 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout, stirring so it heats evenly.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
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