Creamy chicken tortellini soup melds classic Italian cooking with soul-warming soup into one creamy, dreamy dish. Crowd-pleasing creaminess! My creamy chicken tortellini soup recipe is a cozy, comforting soup that will satisfy even your pickiest eaters!
It’s loaded with pillowy soft tortellini, chunks of tender chicken, and just the right veggies with fresh herbs, all in a velvety, super-flavorful broth. This creamy Italian soup will have you adding tortellini soups to your weekly recipe rotation, I promise.
If your family loves homemade chicken soup recipes as much as mine, here are more of my favorites to warm you to the bone. I hope you give them a try next! You’ll love their rich, classic flavor. You’ll be transported back to Grandma’s kitchen!
Let’s make some soup!!
Ingredients You’ll Need
- Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts: My family prefers chicken breasts but if you’d prefer chicken thighs, they work great also. If you want to take a short cut, skip the fresh chicken and use rotisserie or leftover chicken. Just start the recipe at step #2 in the recipe instructions.
- Salt: I use plain table salt.
- Black Pepper: If you have a pepper mill, fresh cracked is so much better!
- Olive Oil: I use EVOO, use whichever type you prefer.
- Onion: I use yellow onions.
- Garlic: I use a full minced tablespoon. It’s the perfect amount!
- Carrots: Wonderful aromatic that adds a touch of sweetness.
- Bell Pepper: I like red bell peppers in this soup, but any color will work. I believe red is the sweetest, fruitiest, and juiciest of all the bell peppers.
- Cremini Mushrooms: I like cremini over buttons because they have more flavor.
- Flour: This is used to help thicken the soup. Don’t skip cooking the flour with the veggies as directed for 1-2 minutes. Cooking it this way improves the flavor and adds a toasty nuance.
- Chicken Broth: The carton of broth works well in this recipe because I fortify it with Better Than Bouillon.
- Chicken Flavor Better Than Bouillon: This is my secret ingredient which I add to most of my soups and stew to fortify the chicken flavor in broths. Trust me! Don’t skip it, it’s like magic!!
- Italian Seasoning: My favorite brand is McCormick’s Perfect Pinch Italian Seasoning. The combo of herbs is spot on for me. It includes all of the typical Italian herbs and has a bit of marjoram to create a great flavor.
- Rosemary: I find that most Italian seasoning blends don’t include enough rosemary. I think adding just 1 teaspoon creates the perfect blend overall.
- Bay Leaf: This adds a wonderful nuanced flavor of menthol, pine, and black pepper.
- Parmesan Cheese: This addition is a flavor powerhouse. This creates a deep and complex broth with rich and nutty flavors and a deep umami taste.
- Cheese Tortellini: Those boxes in the refrigerated section of the supermarket are not only delicious but make this recipe a snap to make. I generally use the cheese variety but any variety will work deliciously.
- Heavy Cream: Please use heavy cream. Any lower-option fat variety won’t give you the luscious, velvety mouth feel this soup gives you.
- Basil: Fresh julienned basil finishes this soup with the perfect herbaceous finish.
- Parsley: I love using this to add more freshness and beautiful garnish to the finished soup.
Tips
- Curdling: The enemy of any creamy soup is curdled milk! To prevent your creamy-dreamy soup from turning into a creamy-nightmare soup, you’ll want to temper any cream you add. Tempering is bringing the temperature of the milk up so that when it hits the hot soup, it doesn’t turn to curds. Here’s an article regarding more about preventing curdling.
- Cooked Veggies: If you put vegetables in a soup, why do you need to cook them before? One word: flavor! Sautéing veggies beforehand allows for caramelization, which is where all flavor comes from in cooking. Here’s another article on why you should saute before putting them in your soup!
- Cut veggies roughly the same size: This allows the veggies to cook more evenly.
- Parmesan Cheese: After the Parmesan is added be sure to stir often so the cheese doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.
- Noodles: Tortellini may have extra umph in them, but they are still noodles! If you’re buying them fresh just remember they don’t need as long to cook as dried pasta. Aim for perfect al dente cooking. When you’re grabbing your tortellini, make sure you don’t grab a package of tortelloni instead. There’s a big difference: size! Tortelloni are much larger and tend to be two-bite pasta while tortellini are smaller and do better in soups.
Variations
- Add Corn: Add 1 cup of thawed frozen corn or the same amount of well-rinsed and drained canned corn. Trader Joe’s has a delicious frozen roasted corn that’s always a delicious addition.
- Switch Up The Herbs: Instead of fresh basil, try a little fresh rosemary. It has a very strong flavor so start with a little and add to taste. Fresh chives are also delish!
Storing + Freezing + Make-Ahead
- How Long Can You Keep This In The Fridge? Your easy creamy chicken tortellini soup recipe will store in the fridge for up to four days. After that, the noodles will become thoroughly saturated by the sauce, and you’ll lose all that wonderful chewy goodness of the tortellini. But you can always freshen up your leftover soup with a splash of cream! This will give it some extra liquid and help loosen up the sauce.
- Can You Freeze This? Sadly, no. Due to the heavy cream base in this soup, the freezer’s high temperatures would decimate the milk and cause lots of unappetizing separation. If you know you’ll have a ton of soup left over, your best bet is to cook the tortellini separately. You can freeze tortellini on its own, just not the cream base soup. Tortellini freezes for up to two months.
- Make-Ahead Tips: One thing I love most about this best creamy chicken tortellini soup recipe is how easy it is to make! Tortellini comes premade at the store, so much of this recipe is dump and simmer. But to cut the time down, you can always chop your veggies early. Chopped veggies will last up to five days in the fridge.
- Food Safety: Here’s an article for chicken soup safety.
Serving Recommendations For This Cozy And Comforting Soup
I like to serve this with my Mediterranean salad and something to dip into the luscious, velvety broth like my copycat Olive Garden bread sticks, my seriously, seriously delicious garlic and herb parker house rolls, my most favorite garlic bread, or my quick and easy Bisquick biscuits!
How To Make in The Slow Cooker
- Pat chicken dry and generously season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Brown chicken breasts (2) on both sides and continue to cook until cooked through. When cool enough to handle, cut into 1/2-inch pieces; set aside.
- Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil and cook onion (1 1/2 cups), garlic (1 tablespoon), carrots (4), red bell pepper (1/2), and mushrooms (8 ounces) and cook until vegetables are soft. Sprinkle vegetables with flour (1/4 cup) and cook, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes.
- Whisk in the chicken broth (5-6 cups) until smooth. Add the Better Than Bouillon (1 heaping tablespoon), Italian seasoning (1 tablespoon), rosemary (1 teaspoon), bay leaf (1), 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and Parmesan cheese (1 cup) and bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat and simmer, stirring often so the cheese doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Cook for 10 minutes then pour the mixture into a 6-quart slow cooker, cover, and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 7 hours.
- Stir in tortellini (10 ounces) and continue to cook on high, covered, until tortellini is soft and tender about 35-45 minutes.
- Return chicken, and any juices that have accumulated on the plate, back to the pot, and stir in cream (1 cup). Continue to cook on high until the chicken is heated through.
- Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. Serve in individual bowls topped with Parmesan and fresh parsley.
Step By Step How To Make
- Dry and season the chicken with salt and pepper.
- Brown chicken breasts on both sides and continue to cook until cooked through.
- Cut into 1/2-inch pieces; set aside.
- Saute and cook the vegetables until soft.
- Sprinkle vegetables with flour and cook.
- Whisk in the chicken broth until smooth. Add the Better Than Bouillon, Italian seasoning, rosemary, bay leaf, salt, black pepper, and Parmesan cheese and bring to a boil, reduce to simmer.
- Stir in tortellini and simmer until almost al dente.
- Return chicken, and any juices that have accumulated on the plate, back to the pot.
- Stir in cream.
- Adjust salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and stir in basil. Ladle into individual bowls and serve.
**See full instructions below.
More Delicious Tortellini Soup Recipes
Here’s a page with links to all my chicken soup recipes!
Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup
Creamy chicken tortellini soup melds classic Italian cooking with soul-warming soup into one creamy, dreamy dish. Crowd-pleasing creaminess!
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
- 2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- salt
- black pepper
- 1/4 cup olive oil divided
- 1 1/2 cups onion, diced
- 1 tablespoon garlic, minced
- 4 medium carrots, diced
- 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
- 8 ounces sliced cremini mushrooms
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 5-6 cups low sodium chicken broth
- 1 heaping tablespoon chicken flavor Better Than Bouillon
- 1 tablespoon Italian seasoning
- 1 teaspoon dried rosemary
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 (10-ounces) container fresh cheese tortellini
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1/2 cup fresh basil, julienned
Garnish:
- fresh basil or parsley
Instructions
- Pat chicken dry and generously season both sides with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pot. Brown chicken breasts (2) on both sides and continue to cook until cooked through. When cool enough to handle, cut into 1/2 inch pieces; set aside.
- Add remaining 2 tablespoons oil and cook onion (1 1/2 cups), garlic (1 tablespoon), carrots (4), red bell pepper (1/2), and mushrooms (8 ounces) and cook until vegetables are soft. Sprinkle vegetables with flour (1/4 cup) and cook, stirring constantly, for 1-2 minutes.
- Whisk in the chicken broth (5-6 cups) until smooth. Add the Better Than Bouillon (1 heaping tablespoon), Italian seasoning (1 tablespoon), rosemary (1 teaspoon), bay leaf (1), 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, and Parmesan cheese (1 cup) and bring to a boil, then immediately reduce heat and simmer, stirring often so the cheese doesn't stick to the bottom of the pot, uncovered, for 20 minutes.
- Stir in tortellini (10 ounces) adjusting heat to maintain a simmer, continue stirring occasionally. Cook until tortellini is almost al dente. Return chicken, and any juices that have accumulated on the plate, back to the pot and stir in cream (1 cup). Continue to simmer until the chicken is heated through.
- Adjust salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and stir in basil (1/2 cup). Ladle into individual bowls and serve. As soup sits the pasta will absorb the broth, thin as needed with extra chicken broth.
Fans Also Made:
Notes
- Stir the soup often after adding the parmesan cheese.
- You can use rotisserie chicken instead of chicken breasts to cut down cooking time.
- Curdling: The enemy of any creamy soup is curdled milk! To prevent your creamy-dreamy soup from turning into a creamy-nightmare soup, you'll want to temper any cream you add. Tempering is bringing the temperature of the milk up so that when it hits the hot soup, it doesn't turn to curds.
- Cooked Veggies: If you put vegetables in a soup, why do you need to cook them before? One word: flavor! Sautéing veggies beforehand allows for caramelization, which is where all flavor comes from in cooking.
- Noodles: Tortellini may have extra umph in them, but they are still noodles! If you're buying them fresh just remember they don't need as long to cook as dried pasta. Aim for perfect al dente cooking. When you're grabbing your tortellini, make sure you don't grab a package of tortelloni instead. There's a big difference: size! Tortelloni are much larger and tend to be two-bite pasta while tortellini are smaller and do better in soups.
Nutrition
Serving: 1/6 of the recipe | Calories: 549kcal | Carbohydrates: 39g | Protein: 26g | Fat: 34g | Saturated Fat: 15g | Cholesterol: 104mg | Sodium: 606mg | Potassium: 749mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 7949IU | Vitamin C: 19mg | Calcium: 282mg | Iron: 2mg
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This soup is so creamy and delicious! My guys loved it! I can’t wait to make it again!
Woot! That’s great, Beth! ❤️
this looks sooo creamy and I love all the different herbs!
Thank you, Estelle! Hope you enjoy it! ❤️
So rich and creamy. Perfect dinner for a cold day!
I couldn’t agree more!
I love soup! Really! Any kind! Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome, Julie! ?