This nutritious chicken and leek soup is perfect for a cold night, but it’s a staple for every season. Bright, comforting, and full of flavor, this easy recipe is freezer-friendly, meal-prep approved, and made in one pot. Perfect for a cozy, lazy dinner.

I subscribe to the belief that every season is soup season. There’s nothing quite comforting as a bowl of soup on a rainy day. And the thing about soups is that they pretty much cook themselves. Throw everything into a pot and as it simmers away, you can do a yoga sequence, catch up on your reading, or do a little online shopping. In any case, your soup will be doing most of the cooking.

This chicken and leek soup is also extremely forgiving and easily customizable: you can add fennel, skip the carrots, swap the onion for shallots, you can adapt it to your circumstances.

But the important thing about this soup is how nutritious and healing it is: its base is a mix of ingredients that are known for their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties: garlic, ginger, onions, carrots, and celery. The chicken gives it so much flavor and a good amount of protein, making it such a satisfying dish.

How to Make Chicken and Leek Soup

I’m a big fan of chicken soup. And they all more or less follow the same pattern:

Cook the chicken until golden brown (I always like to use skin-on, bone-in chicken thighs for soups because they add significantly more flavor compared to other cuts, such as chicken breasts).

Then remove the chicken from the pan and add the base ingredients: the onions, garlic, and ginger, then the carrots, celery, and leeks. The idea is just to sweat the ingredients and not brown them. You just want to cook them in that flavorful chicken fat over low heat until they become soft and translucent. This technique helps soften them and mellow their flavor without developing a browning or caramelized color.

When the chicken has cooled a bit, peel off the skin and return the chicken to the pan. Add the chicken stock, and the herbs, and simmer until chicken is cooked. Finally, remove the chicken one last time, shred it, and return to the soup.

If you want to make your life easier, you can absolutely use rotisserie chicken. And if shredding the chicken using forks does not sound like something you want to do, place your warm, boneless and skinless chicken into a mixing bowl, turn it on low (you can also just use a hand mixer) and you should have shredded chicken in about 30 seconds to one minute.

A Little Trick That Makes a Big Difference

I’ve talked about this before: turn your chicken skin into a salty, crunchy topping. This is such an easy step, but it does take your soup to the next level. The crispy skin adds so much flavor and also a nice texture to an otherwise texture-less dish (and it’s rich in collagen!)

If you don’t want to use your oven for this, you can absolutely cook the chicken skin in the air fryer. It takes about ten to fifteen minutes.

Speaking of toppings, I like to go all out when serving my soup and I encourage you to do the same. For this soup I like adding a lot of fresh herbs (whatever you have on hand), black pepper, a generous squeeze of lemon , grated parmesan cheese, thinly sliced radishes, and of course, lots of crushed pieces of crispy chicken skin.

For a complete dish, I like serving it over rice. You can also serve it over noodles or with a side of bread – carbs complete any dish and ties the whole thing together, in my humble opinion. But for a lighter dinner, serve it with a simple salad or roasted vegetables or just as is (my often preferred choice). And for a fun dinner, serve alongside a glass (or two) of wine.

Did you try this chicken and leek soup recipe? Leave a comment or tag me on Instagram. I’d love to hear from you!

Le Creuset Dutch oven

An equally cute, but cheaper one.

Le Creuset salt and pepper mills

Air Fryer

Marble salt cellar

Acacia wood cutting board

This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click on one of the product links above and make a purchase, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only ever recommend products or services I genuinely love or use personally. Thank you so much for supporting From A Small Kitchen!