This easy chicken and potato soup recipe makes a homemade potato and chicken soup from scratch that is comforting and healing. It’s a simple, hearty soup that’s subtly seasoned but given texture at the end with crunchy croutons and crispy fried onions, and is enlivened by fresh fragrant dill – or any aromatic herb of your choosing, as it’s also incredibly versatile.
My chicken and potato soup recipe will make you a deliciously comforting homemade chicken potato soup from scratch that is hearty and nourishing. The base of this warming winter soup is the easiest chicken stock you’ll ever make, made from perfectly poached chicken breasts, which you pull apart and add to the broth near the end. It’s one of our best potato soup recipes.
This is the kind of soup I love to make a big pot of if I’m feeling unwell or a little down or in need of hugs – no matter what the weather. I’ll happily nurse a bowl of this healing soup, whether it’s winter or summer – when I’ll blast the AC for five minutes before dishing it up and settling on the sofa to watch some Netflix.
Straightforward and with a super-simple stock that’s a cinch to make, my chicken and potato soup recipe is the kind of soup I wish I’d known how to make when I was younger and reached for a can of Campbell’s cream of chicken soup or potato soup whenever I was sick.
Now before I tell you more about this comforting chicken and potato soup recipe, I have a favour to ask. Grantourismo is reader-funded. If you’ve enjoyed our recipes or other content on the site, please consider supporting Grantourismo. You could make a small donation to our epic original Cambodian cuisine history and cookbook on Patreon or buy us a coffee and we’ll use that donation to buy cooking ingredients for recipe testing.
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Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe for a Comforting Soup that Starts with an Easy Stock
Our regular readers probably think I always ate well as a kid with all my tales of my grandmother’s homemade dumplings, borscht and cabbage rolls, my nanna’s potato salads and roast chicken, and my parents’ more adventurous meals, everything from Chinese to Indian – adventurous for the 1970s!
But both mum and dad always worked, and mum took evening accounting classes when I was young, so there’d be a few hours between the time I got home from school and when my parents got home from work when I’d have to fend for myself.
If I was sick, I’d be home alone, and mum would make sure there’d be fruit juice in the fridge, a bowl filled with oranges or mandarins on the dining table, and cans of Campbell’s soup and fresh bread for toast and muffins or crumpets on the kitchen counter.
As a teen in high school or a twenty-something year-old staying home sick from uni or work, I’d reach for the tins of chicken and potato soup or pick some up from the supermarket – along with boxes of tissues and throat lozenges after the doctor’s appointment.
How I wish I would have known how to make this healing broth. Just a few tips to making this super-easy chicken and potato soup recipe.
Tips to Making this Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe that Starts with an Easy Stock
As usual, I only have few tips to share with you for making this deliciously-comforting chicken and potato soup recipe as it’s so easy, even if it is made from scratch – and by ‘from scratch’, I mean that you’ll be making a simple chicken stock from the water that you poach the chicken in, which you’ll use in the soup.
It’s the same way that a stock is made for a Southeast Asian rice porridge or rice soup, such as this Thai rice soup for khao tom gai. We make the same kind of stock from the poached chicken water, only I add lemongrass stalks, kaffir lime leaves and herbs to the water, for fragrance as much as flavour.
I’ve kept this chicken stock super simple as I’m treating this as a sick-bed soup, with subtle seasoning – just bay leaves, sea salt, white pepper and black pepper – but it’s a versatile recipe, so you can really add any kind of herb or spice you like.
You’ll need a digital kitchen thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken breasts. When it reaches 74°C when you poke it into the thickest part of the chicken, remove the breasts and set them aside.
You’ll also need a strainer to remove any impurities and scum from what is now your chicken stock, then you’ll add another litre of water, and the salt and both peppers and boil for 10 minutes.
While you can make this chicken and potato soup recipe in an hour, if you leave it for longer so the potatoes soften and break down further, it will really thicken up. If you want it creamy, you could add cream instead of the sour cream I recommend.
I love adding fresh dill – but Terence tells me not everybody is as smitten with dill as I am, so you could try fresh celery leaves or parsley or whatever you like. I also sprinkle crunchy croutons and crispy fried shallots on top, as I love texture too, but you could easily dunk some buttered toast fingers into the broth and be very satisfied.
Chicken and Potato Soup Recipe that Starts with an Easy Stock
Ingredients
- 400 g chicken breasts
- 1 litre water
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 tsp white pepper
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- 250 g onions finely chopped
- 2 garlic cloves finely chopped
- 300 g white/green cabbage shredded
- 750 g potatoes peeled and diced to 2cm pieces
- 2 tbsp fresh dill roughly chopped – or celery leaves or fresh herb of your choice (optional)
- 2 tbsp sour cream or cream (optional)
- 2 tbsp croutons
- 2 tbsp crispy fried onions
Instructions
- To a medium-sized pot, big enough to lay the chicken breasts next to each other, pour in enough cold water to cover the chicken breasts, and add bay leaves.
- Turn the heat to high, bring the water to boil, then turn to the heat to low to a simmer. Use a digital kitchen thermometer to check the internal temperature of the chicken breasts and when it reaches 74°C in the thickest part of the chicken, remove the breasts and set them aside.
- Use a strainer to remove any impurities and scum from what is now your chicken stock, then add another litre of water, and the salt and pepper and boil for 10 minutes.
- While the stock is boiling, in another soup pot over medium-high, heat two tablespoons of olive oil, and fry the onions until soft, add the finely chopped garlic and continue to fry until fragrant and the onions are translucent. Don’t let the garlic brown.
- To the same pot, add another two tablespoons of olive oil and the white cabbage, stirring to ensure the cabbage is completely covered in olive oil, and stir to cook until the cabbage starts to soften, then add a ladleful of chicken stock, stir to combine and continue cooking.
- Once the cabbage is soft and starting to colour, add the remaining stock with onions and garlic to the cabbage, then add the diced potatoes, stir to combine well, cover and leave to cook for 20 minutes or so or until the potatoes are soft and have started to break down.
- Use two forks or clean hands to pull the chicken meat apart into pieces and add them to the soup, stir to distribute them, and turn the heat to high for a couple of minutes so they’re nice and hot.
- Taste and adjust the seasoning to suit your palate, add a tablespoon or fresh dill or celery leaves – or another favourite fresh herb – then ladle into bowls and top each bowl with a dollop of sour cream, crunchy croutons, crispy fried onions, and more fresh dill (or celery leaves or your fave herb) and serve immediately with crusty bread or toast.
Nutrition
Please do let us know in the comments below if you make this chicken and potato soup recipe as we’d love to know how it turns out for you.
