Chicken Tortellini Soup

January 5, 2022 by Beth Pierce 49 Comments

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This Chicken Tortellini Soup Recipe spells pure comfort food with roasted chicken, onions, bell peppers, carrots, cheese tortellini, and spinach in a perfectly seasoned creamy chicken broth. This soup comes together quickly and easily with already-roasted chicken, making it one of our favorites. This hearty soup is full of flavor, texture, and colors and a step up from the classic chicken noodle soup.

A delicious creamy Chicken and Tortellini Soup with onions, carrots, and spinach.

How to make Chicken Tortellini Soup

Start by heating a little olive oil in a large Dutch oven or heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Then add the onions and celery and sauté until they are almost soft. Now add the bell peppers and carrots. Continue cooking until the onions and peppers are soft. Then reduce the heat to low and add the garlic, Italian seasoning, black pepper, and red pepper, cooking for a minute while stirring constantly.

Add the chicken broth and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to simmer and cook for 4-5 minutes. Next, add the cheese tortellini and shredded chicken. Cook until the carrots are tender and the tortellini are cooked through. Then add the baby spinach and cook for 1-2 minutes or until wilted. Finally, remove from the heat and stir in the heavy cream. Spoon into soup bowls and garnish with fresh herbs like thyme, rosemary, or parsley.

Cook the onions, bell peppers, carrots, and garlic in a large heavy pot.

Recipe notes and helpful tips

You can use frozen, dried, or fresh cheese tortellini. Fresh is usually found next to the fresh Italian cheeses at your local grocery store.
I like a good healthy amount of spinach in my soup. If you are not a big spinach lover, cut it back to 2 cups of baby spinach.
You can use cooked boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked chicken thighs, rotisserie chicken, or even browned Italian Sausage.
Chop the vegetables finely, so a little bit ends up in almost every spoonful.
I like to use roasted rotisserie chicken for this recipe, but you can substitute baked chicken breasts, poached chicken, grilled chicken, or even pan-fried chicken in this recipe.
The heavy cream makes it smooth, luscious, and slightly thicker. If you would like it thicker, please see below for more ways to thicken the soup.
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Reheat on the stovetop over low heat or in the microwave at reduced power.
Freeze in heavy-duty freezer zipper bags for up to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator overnight. Then reheat on the stovetop over low heat or in the microwave at reduced power.

A bowl full of creamy spinach, chicken, and cheese tortellini soup.

More ways to thicken this Chicken Tortellini Soup

Flour Slurry – whisk 4 tablespoons flour with 1 cup water or broth until smooth and lump-free (for every two cups of soup). Then whisk it into the simmering soup mixture and cook until thickened. I usually combine this with at least one other method. You would need too much of it to really thicken a whole pot of soup, and it would leave it with an overwhelming flour taste.

Cornstarch Slurry – whisk 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 1 tablespoon of broth or water for every two cups of soup. Whisk the slurry into the hot simmering soup mixture and cook until thickened. Again I like to combine this with at least one other method. It can be combined with the flour method above, even though they are both slurries.

Roux – equal amounts of melted fat and flour (3-4 tablespoons butter and 3-4 tablespoons flour) are cooked over medium-low heat for 2-3 minutes while whisking continuously. Then the broth is slowly added while whisking. Continue to cook, whisking frequently until the broth has thickened. This would need to be done in a separate pot and added to the vegetables at the same time as the non-thickened broth for this soup. This is one of my favorite tried and true methods, and because the flour taste is cooked off, it does not need to be combined with other methods.

Warm cheese tortellini and chicken soup with fresh onions, spinach, carrots. and garlic.

How to freeze soup

Start by fully cooling the soup. For a quick and immediate (especially for soups with pasta) cool down, place the pot in an ice bath and stir to cool. Do not allow any of the ice water into the soup pot.
Ladle the fully cooled soup into heavy-duty quart or gallon-sized freezer zipper bags. Mark the bags with the date and the contents. Keep in mind that liquids expand when frozen, so leave about an inch at the top of the bag for expansion. Likewise, you don’t want it to get freezer burnt, so remove any excess air.
Lay the soup bags down in a flat single layer on cookie sheets and place them in the freezer on a level surface. Once fully frozen, stack the bags up on their side in the freezer to save space.
Thaw in the fridge overnight. Reheat it on the stovetop on low or in the microwave at 60% power so as not to overcook any ingredients before it is hot. Or reheat on the stovetop over low heat, stirring frequently.

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