Chicken Soup with Leeks and Dill
Turn your leftover roast chicken into this comforting, veggie-loaded soup and read on to find out what ingredient makes it extra flavorful.
This first week or so of the new year has been, thankfully, quiet and uneventful. Since the holiday entertaining blitz I’ve savored the quiet time with no schedule or a menu to put together. An old friend of my husband’s stayed with us for a few days after the first of the year but he’s always been an easy guest. He doesn’t cook at home so everything I put on the table is appreciated and regarded as something special.
For dinner one evening I served a simple roast chicken, my Gratin Dauphinois and a green salad. Even with three healthy appetites and one lunch of leftovers, I still had a lot of chicken to use up after our friend’s departure. With the carcass and still a good amount of meat on it (thanks to not being able to buy a whole chicken smaller than five pounds), chicken soup was the natural choice but I wanted something new. Like a child with a new toy, I tend to play favorites with soup–I will favor a particular recipe for a while…until I tire of it and it retreats into the background to let another shine for a time.
My typical soup add-ins are cabbage, celery and carrots, along with other extras but with leftover potatoes gratin that I usually repurpose into a creamy soup, leeks came to mind. Then dill. I’ve been wanting everything dill-flavored lately.
How to Boost the Flavor of Classic Chicken Soup
Leeks, zucchini and dill ended up the green components for this version of chicken soup–nothing out of the ordinary but it was a welcome change from the usual. I loved the herby freshness from the dill and just the right onion flavor in the broth from the leeks.
For such a simple soup, this one had a long-simmered quality and it’s all thanks to miso paste. White miso paste has become a staple in my kitchen over the last few years. Just a spoonful provides a big umami boost to stir-fries, noodles, salad dressings and soups. But as much as it adds to dishes, miso paste remains a humble ingredient, content being in the background. So this is still your classic chicken soup, just with something extra.
What Part of the Leek Should You Use?
Most recipes I come across using leeks recommend using the white parts only but this seems wasteful to me. I always use the whole leek–the green section is very flavorful and becomes tender just like the white part. So by all means, please use it all.
A Note About Ingredient Amounts
I’ve prepared this soup twice over the past week, mainly because we enjoyed it so much but also because I still had so much chicken to use up. After the first batch I knew this soup had earned a spot in the blog but the second time I played around with the amount of vegetables to see if it would alter the quality of the soup. I doubled the amount of leeks and zucchini the second time while keeping the liquid quantity the same. The result was a chunkier soup with slightly more onion flavor but I enjoyed both equally, especially the next day (pictured in this post is the chunkier version). If you prefer a lower vegetable to meat ratio, choose the smaller ingredient amounts in the recipe below. There’s no wrong way to prepare this soup–use my recipe as a guide and make it your own.
Just one more thing. If you should find yourself with leftover potatoes gratin, throw it in this soup–you won’t be sorry.
Chicken Soup with Leeks and Dill
Turn your leftover roast chicken into this comforting, veggie-loaded soup and read on to find out what ingredient makes it extra flavorful.
Ingredients
- 1/2 onion, diced
- 1 carrot, diced
- 1-2 leeks, white and most of green parts (rinsed and chop in small pieces)
- 1-2 zucchini, diced
- 4 cups low-sodium chicken stock (See Note)
- 2-3 cups water
- Leftover roast chicken (or 1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs)
- 1 – 2 tablespoons white miso paste (I use low-sodium)(See Note)
- 1-2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
- 1/4 – 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- lemon wedges for garnish (optional)
Instructions
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Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the diced onion and diced carrots and sauté for two to three minutes. Add the chopped leeks, onion powder, garlic powder, salt and pepper and sauté for another two to three minutes. You should start to see some caramelization in the pan.
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If you're using a leftover whole chicken, add it to the pan. I divide the carcass with the meat still in it in four pieces for easier simmering. Add the chicken stock and enough water to cover the chicken pieces by one or two inches. Bring to a boil and simmer for about twenty minutes. (If you're using boneless, skinless thighs, add the raw chicken pieces along with the stock/water and simmer for about fifteen minutes.)
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After simmering, take the chicken pieces (the carcass or the thighs) and shred the meat on a plate. Discard the bones. Add the meat back to the pot. Dissolve the miso paste in a small bowl with a ladleful of the hot broth and add it to the pot. Add the diced zucchini and fresh dill and simmer for another five to ten minutes. Taste the soup and add more seasoning and/or miso paste according to your liking.
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Ladle into bowls and garnish with lemon wedges (optional). Enjoy.
Recipe Notes
Chicken Stock: You can replace the chicken stock amount with water, especially if you hav chicken carcass to simmer in liquid. You will just need to adjust the amount of miso paste to add more flavor.
Miso Paste: Start with one tablespoon. Add more if you decide to omit the store-bought stock and/or you use boneless, skinless chicken things.
Beautiful photos. I love that you used leeks. They don’t seem to be used that often, from reading other blogs, but they’re so good with chicken. I’m intrigued by the miso. I own some but just don’t use it much. I need to remind myself I have it in the fridge. I’ll move it to the front!
Thanks, Mimi. I’m so glad leeks came to mind, too; I forget how good they are (dark green parts and all). And I know you’ll find a way to use miso in your wonderful dishes. 🙂
Jean,
Your soup was delicious as always, I was wondering if substituting Tofu for chicken would work?
Thank you, Joe.
Hi, Joe. Glad you liked this soup. Tofu should work along with vegetable stock to make it 100% vegan. Let me know how it turns out if you try it.
Jean,
I substituted Tofu for the chicken, I don’t think it’s as good as your chicken recipe, however the dill really makes the flavor of the vegetables stand out. You may want to try Tofu and add this as a vegetarian recipe, even though I did use the chicken broth as a base. Thank you again for the recipe.
Joe.