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
Smooth chicken, potato and carrot soup
A GLP-1 friendly chicken soup blended completely smooth, with the chicken worked into the soup itself rather than left in chunks. A small bowl is mild, soft and still substantial.
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 whole breasts poach to 74°C in 15 to 18 minutes alongside the vegetables
- Confirm the soup blends smooth with half the chicken in it
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 50 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 400 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 37 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
Warm the oil in a 3 litre pan over medium-low heat. Add the leek and cook gently for 6 to 8 minutes, stirring now and then, until soft but not coloured.
Add the potato and carrot, both cut into 2 cm pieces, with the thyme leaves and the stock. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat to a simmer.
Lower in the chicken breasts, cover and poach at a gentle simmer for 15 to 18 minutes, until the chicken reaches 74°C in the thickest part and the potato and carrot are completely soft.
Cooked when: 74°C / 165°F in the thickest part. A food thermometer is the reliable way to tell.
Lift out the chicken. Add the milk to the pan and blend the soup until completely smooth, with a stick blender or in batches in a jug blender with the lid vented.
Shred the chicken finely with two forks. Blend half of it into the soup for body, and stir the rest through.
Warm the soup through without letting it boil. Ladle into bowls, leave for a few minutes to cool a little, and finish with the parsley.
The useful detail
Blend half the chicken into the soup. It thickens the soup with protein instead of cream or flour, and the half left as fine shreds gives the bowl some body without much to chew.
Make it work for you
One serving is A deep bowl, half the pot, about 550 ml. 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 leaner and milder. The same poaching time.
Per serving: about 10 kcal less, about 1 g more protein, about 1 g less fat.
Sweet potato instead of potato
Sweeter and a deeper orange; it softens a few minutes sooner.
Per serving: about 10 kcal more, about 1 g less protein, about the same fat.
Unsweetened soya milk instead of dairy milk
Slightly thinner, with a faint bean note under the stock.
Per serving: about 5 kcal less, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Allergens: Adds soya, removes milk.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A smooth soup that carries over 35 g of protein a bowl, because the chicken is blended into it rather than floated on top, with the potato and carrot bringing the fibre.
| Energy | 400 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 37 g |
| Fat | 10 g |
| of which saturates | 2 g |
| Carbohydrate | 41 g |
| of which sugars | 11 g |
| Fibre | 6 g |
| Sodium | 1,710 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| olive oil | 9 g | FDC 171413Oil, olive, salad or cooking | 80 kcal | 0.0 g |
| leek | 100 g | FDC 169246Leeks, (bulb and lower leaf-portion), raw | 61 kcal | 1.5 g |
| potatoes | 250 g | FDC 170026Potatoes, flesh and skin, raw | 193 kcal | 5.1 g |
| carrot | 150 g | FDC 170393Carrots, raw | 62 kcal | 1.4 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. | · | · |
| chicken stock | 840 g | FDC 174536Soup, chicken broth, ready-to-serve | 51 kcal | 5.4 g |
| chicken breast | 250 g | FDC 171077Chicken, broiler or fryers, breast, skinless, boneless, meat only, raw | 300 kcal | 56.3 g |
| milk | 105 g | FDC 171267Milk, reduced fat, fluid, 2% milkfat, with added vitamin A and vitamin D | 52 kcal | 3.4 g |
| parsley | 5 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 2 kcal | 0.1 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 799 kcal | 73.2 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 it quickly, cover and refrigerate within 2 hours. The FDA chart gives soups and stews 3 to 4 days. It thickens as it cools; loosen it with a splash of water as it reheats.
- 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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