Calling all potato and leek soup lovers! Have you tried adding chicken for a protein fix? No? Well you should! And while you are at it, make it in the slow cooker! We all love a cosy evening in with a comforting bowl of hot soup, and this creamy Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup with potato doesn’t disappoint!
This is a low effort, minimal prep soup, who’s ingredients you can dump in the slow cooker and forget about for a few hours. It also makes a good amount of soup, and will feed at least 5 adults. It freezes and reheats well, which not all creamy meals do.
If you have a toddler, weaning baby or fussy eater and are wondering how to adapt this recipe for your family, see here >
The Stars of my Slow Cooker Chicken and Leek Soup
Leeks
You will need two medium-large leeks for this soup. I usually buy them loose instead of as a 3 pack as they tend to select small leeks for those. If you do use a 3 pack you probably want to use 3 or 2 ½ small leeks. If you buy loose leeks and end up with a huge extra thick one, just the one will probably do. You should end up with about 400-450g / 15.87oz leeks once sliced. Use the white and light green parts of the leeks.
I prepare my leeks how Jamie Oliver once taught me (through the TV!), top and tail them and then slice the leeks in quarter longways, and then thickly slice them. Once that’s done, THEN wash them in a large colander or sieve, tossing and turning them with your hand under the water to really do a thorough job at washing any mud way.
Chicken
You’ll want to stick to chicken breast for this soup, leg meat won’t give you quite the right flavour. Once the soup is cooked, you’ll need to remove the chicken and shred it. I like to do so using two forks on a chopping board. You don’t need to spend much time finely shredding it, I usually leave it quite corse. If you did want it finely shredded, I would recommend adding the chicken breasts to a mixing bowl and using an electric whisk to shred them.
Potato
We are only using a small amount of potato in this soup, about two medium size white potatoes - about 400g / 14.11oz in weight. Once peeled, we are going to grate them right before we add them to the soup so it doesn’t discolour much. Grated potatoes are similar to grated apple, by where once grated, the exposure to air causes them to start to discolour pretty quickly.
Chicken Stock
I prefer to use stock pots in soups and stews for maximum flavour. They have a richer flavour than regular stock cubes, which will go a long way in a simple soup like this one. But if you only have stock cubes - go ahead and use those. If you have homemade chicken stock, of course use that instead of the hot water and the stock pots/cubes.
Cream
To make this soup creamy, you’ll add 150ml of double cream (or heavy cream) once the soup has finished cooking. You’ll remove the bay leaf and the chicken breasts to shred, and then stir in the cream.
FAQ’s For My Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup
What should I serve this soup with?
Honestly, any bread you would usually serve soup with. I often use bake at home stone-baked pave rolls or toasted sourdough. You could even serve this Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup with garlic bread!
Can I prepare this Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup in advance?
There isn’t much to prepare for this soup, but you could certainly chop and wash the leeks in advance, storing them in the fridge until ready to cook if you wanted too. Don’t be tempted to grate your potatoes in advance though because they will discolour very quickly, even if refrigerated. In the recipe, I advise you to grate them right before you add them.
Can I feed more people with this recipe?
This soup will feed five adults, but if you wanted to feed more you can double the recipe so long as you have a large slow cooker (6.5 ltr +).
Can I Store Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup leftovers?
You can store any Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup leftovers in an air-tight container in the fridge for up to 3 days (cook day + 2). Leftovers can also be frozen, just defrost for 24 hours in the fridge and reheat in the microwave, stirring halfway, until steaming hot all the way through. Don’t worry if it looks like the cream has separated while you are heating it, once fully reheated and stirred it will look mixed in again.
More on safe food storage and reheating.
What diets is this recipe suitable for?
My Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup is nut, gluten and egg-free. If you are on a lactose-free diet, like my daughter, you can use lactose-free cream. This soup is NOT suitable for other kinds of diary-free diets, vegans or vegetarians.
How can I make this meal more sustainable?
You could use 2 chicken breasts instead and increase the potatoes to 3 large ones, making it more potato-heavy and less chicken-heavy.
Adapting My Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup For Your Family
Eating together is beneficial for families of all ages and stages, for a multitude of reasons; nutritional, behavioural, psychological and for healthy family functioning. This section will show you how to tweak this Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup recipe for sharing with a weaning baby, toddler or a fussy eater, which will help make it easier to eat together as a family.
Keeping Fussy Eaters Happy
If you have a picky eater who isn’t a big fan of soups and runny sauces (like my son), you can use a slotted spoon to dish their serving up, allowing most of the liquid to run off. This way its more like a stew for them than a soup.
Making My Slow Cooker Chicken & Leek Soup Suitable for Baby Weaning
Hold back on adding salt to the cook. Dish up little one’s soup and then add in salt to your taste, stirring very well.
How to Serve to Babies & Toddlers
BABY-LED WEANING
Use a slotted spoon or ladle to dish up their serving, allowing most of the liquid to drain away. As the chicken will be shredded anyway, the potato grated and the leeks in small soft slices they will be able to manage without any further preparation.
SPOON FED-WEANING
Add some soup to your stick blender pot whizz into a smooth puréed soup.
I’ve also added these notes to the bottom of the recipe so you have them to hand when you come to cook.
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Slow Cooker Chicken and Leek Soup
Equipment
- Slow cooker / crock pot
- Chopping board + knife + colander
- Grater
- Measuring jug + mini hand whisk
- 2 forks
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 650 g chicken breasts
- 2 medium-large leeks (around 450g/15.87oz), quartered lengthways then thickly sliced
- 2 garlic cloves crushed
- 2 white potatoes (around 400g/14.11oz), peeled & grated
- 1.3 ltrs hot water
- 2 chicken stock pots (ideally) or cubes
- 1 bay leaf
- 150 ml double/heavy cream
- Salt & pepper to taste
See notes for baby & toddler
Instructions
- Add the oil to your removable slow cooker pot (or frying pan) and put over a medium-low heat for a couple of minutes. Then add the leeks and fry for 5 minutes, stirring often.
- Add the garlic and fry stirring for 1 minute. Transfer the pot back in the slow cooker base.
- Lie the chicken breasts on top of the leeks and season with salt and pepper. Add the grated potato. Dissolve the stock pots/cubes in 500ml of the hot water and pour in. Measure out the remaining 800ml hot water and add in. Ensure the grated potato is fully submerged.
- Add in the bay leaf, cover and cook for 2 ½ hours on high, 3 ½ hours on medium or 4 ½ hours on low.
- When done, turn the slow cooker off, discard the bay leaf and remove the chicken breasts (check that they are cooked through). Add in the cream and stir through. Allow the soup to cool off while you shred the chicken using forks. Then add the chicken back into the slow cooker, give it a good stir and dish up.
Baby & Toddler
YOUNGER CHILDREN & FUSSY EATERS
STORAGE
Nutrition
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