This creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup Recipe is the best comforting weeknight meal. Kids and adults alike love this cozy, yet healthy, cheese and veggie packed soup. Only 230 calories per cup!
This chicken tortellini soup is one of my favorites! It’s creamy and full of cheesy tortellini but also light and packed with veggies. Plus, it makes enough to feed an army! 😉
Ingredients
Packed with veggies, flavors, and textures, this soup is healthy, creamy, and so yummy!
- Butter – just a touch to cook the veggies. Feel free to swap extra virgin olive oil, but I love the creaminess butter adds.
- Onion, Carrot, Celery – aka a mirepoix. The base for many soup recipes which adds flavor, texture, and nutrients.
- Garlic – adds an abundance of flavor. What’s a cozy soup without tons of garlic?!
- Spinach and Tomatoes – the perfect veggie blend for added texture, color, AND tons of nutrition! We’re adding in a whole bag of spinach, which seems like a lot, but it cooks down as it sits in the hot soup.
- Italian Seasoning, Salt, and Pepper – a simple seasoning mix that really packs a flavor punch!
- Whole Wheat Flour – thickens the broth.
- White Wine and Chicken Broth – the base of our soup. Feel free to replace the wine with more broth, if desired, but the wine adds a great flavor and tang!
- Skim Milk and Half & Half – this combination makes the soup incredibly creamy without adding a ton of fat and calories!
- Shredded Chicken – a moist and flavorful lean protein.
- Cheese Tortellini – one package of refrigerated cheese tortellini is all I needed, but you could definitely use more if you like a thicker soup.
- Grated Parmesan – melts into the broth to make it extra creamy and provides a sharp, salty, nutty flavor.
How to make
Not only is this soup insanely easy to make, it yields a LOT of soup, so it’s perfect for lunches all week long!
- Cook your veggies and seasonings in a large stockpot.
- Sprinkle in flour, then stir in wine, broth, milk, and half & half.
- Mix in shredded chicken, tomatoes, spinach, and tortellini and simmer, then stir in shredded cheese.
- Serve and enjoy!
Best chicken to use
Rotisserie chicken is the best chicken to use for this soup, because it’s very flavorful and juicy. If using, here are some tips:
- Remove the skin. The skin will become rubbery in the soup.
- Take the chicken off the bone while it’s still hot. After it’s cooled, it’s harder to get the chicken off the bone.
- Use a sharp knife to cut it into bite sized chunks. This is easier than shredding with 2 forks.
How to make vegetarian
This tortellini soup recipe can easily be made vegetarian. Simply leave out the chicken and use vegetable broth instead. Then bulk it up more with extra tortellini and/or canned, drained and rinsed beans such as cannellini or garbanzo beans.
Can this be made in a crockpot?
This chicken tortellini soup would be delicious in the slow cooker:
- Place all ingredients (minus chicken, tomatoes, spinach, tortellini, and parmesan cheese) into a greased 6 quart crockpot.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for 3-4 hours or LOW for 7-8 hours.
- Stir in chicken, tomatoes, spinach, tortellini, and parmesan cheese.
- Cover and cook on HIGH for an additional 15-30 minutes or until tortellini is warmed through.
Variations
- Use a different meat. Sausage would be delicious. Simply add when you add in the onion, carrot, and celery. Cook, breaking it up as you go!
- Try other pastas. Try it with another flavor of tortellini, ravioli or any stuffed pasta you like. Keep in mind, this may affect the cook time.
- Add/sub veggies. Try adding green beans, zucchini, peas, corn, or kale.
Tips
- Save time and buy pre-made mirepoix. Some grocery stores carry pre-diced onion, carrot, and celery!
- Use refrigerated tortellini. It cooks faster than frozen. You can frozen tortellini but the cook time will be affected.
- Use store-bought rotisserie chicken. Bonus: it’s very flavorful and you don’t have to do any extra cooking. You could also use leftover shredded chicken.
- Use the white wine. It adds SO much flavor. If you don’t have or can’t have wine, try white grape juice instead or simply replace with more broth.
What to Serve with Chicken Tortellini Soup
This chicken tortellini soup is so yummy as-is, but here are some recipes you could use to fill the meal out even more:
How to store
This chicken tortellini soup can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 4-5 days.
I don’t recommend storing it in the freezer because pasta is notoriously difficult to freeze well.
– Jennifer
Chicken Tortellini Soup
Equipment for this recipe
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 small yellow onion diced
- 2 large carrots diced
- 2 large stalks celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- ½ teaspoon salt plus more to taste, I used 1 teaspoon
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- ¼ cup whole wheat flour could also use all-purpose flour
- ½ cup white wine I used pinot grigio
- 6 cups chicken broth
- 1 cup skim milk could use any milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream
- 1 cup fat free half-and-half could use more milk or heavy cream instead
- 4 cups shredded chicken I used a rotisserie
- 1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes drained
- 1 (5 oz) package baby spinach
- 1-2 (10 oz) package refrigerated cheese tortellini I used 1, but could see some people wanting more
- ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Melt butter in a large stockpot over medium/medium-high heat.
- Add in onion, carrots, celery, garlic, salt, pepper, and Italian seasoning.
- Cook, stirring often, for 10 minutes. Or until veggies are tender.
- Sprinkle in flour and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Slowly pour in wine, stirring constantly, to deglaze the pan.
- Stir in broth, milk, and half-and-half.
- Bring soup to a simmer, stirring occasionally.
- Stir in shredded chicken, diced tomatoes, and baby spinach.
- Bring back to a simmer.
- Add in tortellini and simmer until cooked to your liking (I just followed package directions) about 3-5 minutes.
- Stir in parmesan cheese.
- Taste and re-season, if necessary.
- Serve and enjoy!
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Nutrition Information
*Note: Nutrition information is estimated and varies based on products used.
This post was originally published Feb 14, 2019 and has been updated to provide more detailed content.