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
Poached chicken with soft mashed potato and carrots
Chicken breast poached slowly in stock with thyme, sliced and served with a smooth mash and soft carrots. A plain, mild plate in a modest portion, with a cup of the poaching broth alongside.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 16 October 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 breasts reach 74°C in 14 to 16 minutes at a tremble in a 20 cm pan
- Confirm 1 cm carrot rounds are soft after 20 to 25 minutes in the stock
- Photograph the finished plate
- Time
- About 45 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 430 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 42 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains milk. Check the labels on packaged ingredients:
- chicken stock. Stock often contains celery, and sometimes gluten or soya; check the label.
Cooking steps
Cut the potatoes into 4 cm pieces, put them in a pan, cover with cold water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until a knife slides through with no resistance.
Meanwhile, put the stock and the thyme in a 20 cm pan with a lid and bring to a bare simmer. Add the carrots, cut into 1 cm rounds, and cook for 5 minutes.
Lower in the chicken breasts so they are just covered, adding a little hot water if they are not. Cover and keep the liquid at a gentle tremble, never a boil, for 14 to 16 minutes, until the chicken reaches 74°C in the thickest part.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Turn off the heat and leave the chicken to rest in the stock for 5 minutes while you make the mash.
Drain the potatoes and let them steam dry in the colander for 1 minute. Mash them with the warm milk and the butter until completely smooth.
Slice the chicken thinly across the grain. Serve it with the mash and the carrots, spoon 2 or 3 tablespoons of the stock over each plate and scatter with the parsley. Lift out the thyme and pour the rest of the stock into two cups to sip alongside.
The useful detail
Poach the chicken at a tremble, not a boil, and rest it in the liquid. At a rolling boil the outside of a breast tightens and pushes out its juice before the middle is cooked; at a bare simmer it cooks evenly and stays soft enough to cut with a fork.
Make it work for you
One serving is One chicken breast, sliced, with about 200 g of mash, half the carrots and a cup of broth. 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.
Turkey breast instead of chicken
Slightly firmer and leaner. Poach to the same temperature.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 2 g more protein, about 2 g less fat.
Olive oil instead of butter in the mash
Lighter and a little fruity.
Per serving: about 10 kcal more, about the same protein, about 1 g more fat.
Allergens: Removes milk from the fat. The milk in the mash still contains it.
Sweet potato instead of potato
Sweeter and softer; it cooks a few minutes faster and needs less milk.
Per serving: about 15 kcal more, about 1 g less 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.
The chicken breast is nearly all protein, over 30 g of it on each plate, while the mash and carrots carry the energy and the fibre in a soft, plain form.
| Energy | 430 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 42 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| of which saturates | 4 g |
| Carbohydrate | 44 g |
| of which sugars | 10 g |
| Fibre | 7 g |
| Sodium | 1,340 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| potatoes | 350 g | FDC 170026Potatoes, flesh and skin, raw | 270 kcal | 7.2 g |
| chicken stock | 630 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 38 kcal | 4.0 g |
| fresh thyme leaves | 2 g | FDC 173470Thyme, freshA teaspoon of thyme leaves weighs 0.8 g, under 1 kcal on FoodData Central 173470. That record has no sugars value, so the leaves are listed here rather than counted, which keeps the recipe's sugars calculable. | · | · |
| carrot | 200 g | FDC 170393Carrots, raw | 82 kcal | 1.9 g |
| chicken breast | 300 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 360 kcal | 67.5 g |
| milk | 83 g | FDC 171267Milk, reduced fat, fluid, 2% milkfat, with added vitamin A and vitamin D | 41 kcal | 2.7 g |
| butter | 10 g | FDC 173430Butter, without salt | 72 kcal | 0.1 g |
| parsley | 5 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 2 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 864 kcal | 83.5 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 1 kcal to the whole recipe. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cool, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours of cooking. Eat within 3 to 4 days. Keep the sliced chicken in a little of the stock so it does not dry out, and the mash separately.
- In the freezer
- The FDA chart gives cooked poultry dishes 4 to 6 months in the freezer for best quality.
- Reheating
- Reheat until it reaches 74°C / 165°F, steaming hot throughout.
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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