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, orzo and lemon soup
A lemony chicken broth thickened with egg and orzo.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 21 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 whole breasts poach through in 14 to 16 minutes
- Confirm the tempered egg thickens without curdling over low heat
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 40 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 440 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 44 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains eggs, gluten. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
- orzo. Most dry pasta is just wheat and water, but some contains egg; check the packet.
Cooking steps
Bring the stock to a bare simmer, lower in the chicken breasts whole and poach 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 it for 5 minutes and shred it with two forks.
Add the orzo to the stock and simmer for 8 to 9 minutes, until tender.
Beat the eggs with the lemon juice in a bowl. Ladle in a little of the hot stock while whisking hard, then another, until the bowl is warm to the touch. This is what stops it curdling.
Turn the heat right down, pour the tempered egg back into the pot in a steady stream while stirring, and cook gently for 2 to 3 minutes until the soup thickens very slightly.
Cooked when: the eggs are firm throughout, with no visible liquid egg.
Return the chicken, check the seasoning and finish with the chopped dill.
The useful detail
Warm the egg with hot stock before it goes near the pot, and never let the soup boil afterwards. Poured straight into a hot pan the egg sets instantly, and you get chicken soup with scrambled egg in it.
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.
Small pasta shapes instead of orzo
Chunkier. Check it a few minutes later.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same fat.
White rice instead of orzo
Softer and it thickens the broth more. Give it 15 minutes.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about 3 g less protein, about the same fat.
Fresh parsley instead of dill
Cleaner and less aniseed against the lemon.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about the same 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 soup thickened with egg and lemon rather than cream or flour, which is how it reaches the low forties for protein while staying light.
| Energy | 440 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 44 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 41 g |
| of which sugars | 4 g |
| Fibre | 2 g |
| Sodium | 1,890 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| chicken stock | 945 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 57 kcal | 6.1 g |
| chicken breast | 250 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 300 kcal | 56.3 g |
| orzo | 100 g | FDC 169736Pasta, dry, enrichedFoodData Central records dry pasta as one entry rather than by shape. Orzo is the same durum wheat pasta, cut small. | 371 kcal | 13.0 g |
| eggs | 100 g | FDC 171287Egg, whole, raw, fresh | 143 kcal | 12.6 g |
| lemon juice | 31 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 7 kcal | 0.1 g |
| fresh dill | 10 g | FDC 172233Dill weed, freshFresh dill is 43 kcal per 100 g on FoodData Central 172233, so the few grams a recipe uses add 2 or 3 kcal. That record has no sugars value, so the dill is listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 878 kcal | 88.0 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. Ingredients marked “Not calculated” are excluded and could add at most 3 kcal to the whole recipe. 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. Reheat gently and never boil it, or the egg in the broth will split.
- 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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