Creamy chicken tortellini soup is a delicious and comforting mix of juicy shredded chicken, hearty vegetables, cheesy tortellini, and a lightly creamy broth. It’s the perfect cozy soup to keep you warm in the chilly winter months.
Ingredients
- Chicken breast – we recommend using precooked shredded or rotisserie chicken in this recipe. You can add it at the end, which keeps it from getting dry and rubbery and keeps it juicy. We recommend using our Instant Pot shredded chicken recipe.
- Tortellini – cheese or spinach and fresh or shelf stable work well in this recipe. You may need to adjust the cook time for fresh tortellini.
- Mirepoix – carrots, celery, and onion give this soup some crunch.
- Mushrooms – give this soup a little more heartiness.
- Low sodium chicken broth – for a flavorful base. Using low sodium broth allows you to have more control over the saltiness and seasoning of the broth.
- Dry white wine – dry wine works the best in this recipe. We prefer pinot grigio or sauvignon blanc in this recipe, as they complement the broth rather than overpowering it.
- Tomato paste – adds a hint of tomato flavor.
- Cream cheese and milk – give this soup the perfect amount of subtle creaminess, while keeping things light.
- Seasonings – Italian seasoning, thyme, salt and pepper, and garlic round out the flavors in this soup.
How to Make Chicken Tortellini Soup
We use precooked shredded chicken in this recipe. We use our Instant Pot shredded chicken recipe and add it to the soup at the very end of the cooking time. This eliminates dry and rubbery chicken and keeps the chicken juicy and tender instead.
Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until the carrots begin to soften. Add the mushrooms and saute another 2 minutes, or until liquid is released.
Pour in the chicken broth, white wine, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, thyme and salt and pepper, to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes.
Add the milk and cream cheese to the broth and stir until fully incorporated. Fold in the chicken and tortellini and cook another 7 to 8 minutes, or until pasta is al dente.*See our Quick Tips (below) for an alternate method for cooking the pasta.
Fold in the spinach 1 minute before serving. Serve with Parmesan cheese and homemade white bread, if desired.
Quick Tips for This Recipe
- Shortcuts – If you’re short on time, here are some quick shortcuts:
- Buy pre-washed baby kale to skip the chopping
- Pick up sliced mushrooms instead of whole mushrooms
- Grab prepared mirepoix in the refrigerated section of the grocery store instead of slicing and dicing carrots, celery, and onion
- Pick up a rotisserie chicken (the Costco ones are actually not terribly unhealthy). Then you can choose to remove the skin and shred the chicken or shred it with skin on for a little extra flavor.
- Break out your food processor to chop the veggies.
- Don’t waste your wine – if you’re not an avid wine drinker, try buying a 4 pack of mini/individual serving wine bottles instead of a whole bottle of wine. Then you can save the other 3 bottles for other recipes rather than throwing the rest of the unused bottle down the drain in a few weeks once it has turned.
- Keep pasta and broth separate –
- My BEST tip for making amazing soup that reheats well and doesn’t turn pasta to mush is to cook the pasta in its own pot separate from the broth. When you are ready to eat, ladle the pasta into the bowl and top with broth.
- To store, keep the broth in one container and the pasta in another.
- To reheat, warm the broth in a sauce pot. Add the desired amount of pasta to a bowl and top with hot broth.
How to Store This Soup
Refrigerating
To store this soup, we recommend storing the vegetables and pasta separately from the broth. Use a slotted spoon to strain the broth from the vegetables and pasta. Transfer the strained veggies to one container. Pour the remaining broth into a second container. See the Quick Tips section (above) for an alternate method of cooking the pasta and preventing soggy noodles.
Keep the soup and noodles refrigerated for up to a week.
Freezing
This soup is very freezer friendly! We definitely recommend freezing a few batches ahead of time for when you need an easy dinner in a pinch.
To freeze, fill a freezer quart baggie about 3/4 of the way full. Don’t fill it completely or it may rip the bag when it freezes and expands.
Lay the freezer bags of soup flat on a large baking sheet. Arrange the baking sheet flat on the freezer shelf. Freeze for several hours, until the soup has set inside the baggie. Remove the soup from the baking sheet and store as desired in the freezer.
For ease of freezing, we recommend making the soup in its entirety, but do not add the pasta.
Reheating
Thaw frozen soup overnight in the refrigerator. To reheat, add the soup to a large Dutch oven and warm over the stove. In a separate pot, cook fresh pasta. Ladle the cooked pasta into a bowl and top with warmed broth. Alternately, you can add the pasta straight to the warming soup to cook.
Let us know what you think about this recipe for creamy chicken tortellini soup by dropping a comment and/or rating on the recipe card below. Please consider sharing on social media/Pinterest if you enjoyed this recipe! We really appreciate it! 🙂
Try out more delicious soups
- Fall Minestrone Soup
- Summer Minestrone Soup
- Chickpea Minestrone Soup
- Spicy Sausage and Chickpea Soup
- Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Coconut Chickpea Green Curry
Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup
Ingredients
- 1 lb precooked shredded chicken
- 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3 carrots, diced
- 3 celery stalks, sliced
- 1 small yellow onion, diced
- 8 oz mushrooms (baby bellas, white button), sliced
- 6 c low sodium chicken broth
- ½ c dry white wine
- 1 6 oz can tomato paste
- 1 tsp Italian seasoning
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 2 c 2% milk
- 4 oz â…“ less fat cream cheese
- 12 oz cheese or spinach tortellini (shelf stable or fresh*)
- 2 c spinach, chopped
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, onion, carrots, and celery. Cook 3 to 4 minutes, or until the carrots begin to soften. Add the mushrooms and saute another 2 minutes, or until liquid is released.
- Pour in the chicken broth, white wine, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, thyme and salt and pepper, to taste. Bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for 15 minutes.
- Add the milk and cream cheese to the broth and stir until fully incorporated. Fold in the chicken and tortellini and cook another 7 to 8 minutes, or until pasta is al dente.*See notes on alternate method for cooking pasta.
- Fold in the spinach 1 minute before serving. Serve with Parmesan cheese and homemade white bread, if desired.
Notes
- When cooking the tortellini, you have a few options:
- For serving a large group (5-6 people), we tend to add the pasta straight to the soup since we rarely have much soup left over when we are entertaining guests. To store, use a slotted spoon to drain and scoop the chicken-pasta ingredients into one bowl. Then pour the leftover broth into a separate second bowl. This prevents the pasta from getting excessively soggy, although it will absorb some moisture when it is stored.
- For meal prepping or for serving a small group (2-3 people), we cook the pasta separately. When it is time to serve, add a spoonful of tortellini to the bowl and top with as much broth as desired. This allows easy and separate storage of the broth and pasta, which prevents the pasta from getting water logged, soggy, and broken up.
- This recipe was based on shelf-stable tortellini. If you use fresh tortellini, it may cook faster. Refer to the package directions for cook time.
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