Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup | A Soup with a Southwestern Flair

Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup is not the usual recipe you want to make when you’re on vacation. But when the weather heads south, like we did, you crave something deliciously warm and spicy. This is a zesty chicken vegetable soup that will warm your tummy as well as your body. Fresh cheese tortellini cooks in no time and hot chunky salsa spikes the rich broth. The recipe is so versatile you can make countless variations and we’ll give you more ideas. 

For this recipe you’ll need: chicken tenders or rotisserie chicken, baby spinach, fresh cheese tortellini, chicken or vegetable stock, garlic, onion, olive oil, oregano, petite cut tomatoes with green chiles, chunky salsa ( you’re heat tolerance), oregano. 

Craving Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup

We escaped the bitter cold of the North only to find ourselves in the midst of a snow and sleet storm in Florida. Very unusual! It was so unusual we had to get off the Interstate because it was closed. Here we were looking for sunshine and we found this:

(That’s Honey’s voice in the background — he thought I was taking a still photo and didn’t know I was filming it. )

The weather was in the 40’s when we arrived at our final destination. This was not what we were looking for — we wanted sunshine and warm weather. 😎

The next day we went to get our supplies and one of the stops was at Trader Joe. Flowers are a must when I go there.

Along with the flowers we bought fresh cheese-filled pasta, and baby spinach for the zesty chicken tortellini soup.

Getting the supplies for the Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup

We left Giotto’s then stopped at a big box store where we bought a rotisserie chicken for the soup. When I made the soup on Facebook Live I used chicken tenders. Either way tastes great.

I’ll be quite honest, rotisserie chicken can be a life-saver in the kitchen. You can make quite a few meals out of it and it’s inexpensive.

Several more stops and we were ready to start on the spicy chicken spinach soup.

The soup begins with the onions and garlic sauteing in a large Dutch oven or pot. See that steam coming off of the onions and garlic? It’s already starting to warm and perfume the house. 😋

Next comes the chicken, if you’re using chicken tenders, but this time we’re using rotissierie chicken so we immediately add the rest of the ingredients.

We’ve mentioned how much we love our spicy soups so we made sure our petite cut tomatoes had green chiles in the can. Along with the tomatoes we bought the hot salsa instead of the mild or medium variety.

The broth went in next and we let it come to a simmer. Ahhh!! I could feel myself warming up. 🌶

(Caveat — start off with a large enough pot. You’ll notice we started off with a silver pot and ended up with a black one. Yep!! By the time we added the rest of the ingredients it was getting a bit too full. )

We used the dark meat off the rotissierie chicken and saved the breast meat to use for another time. Once the meat was in the soup we let it come to a simmer again and then added the fresh cheese tortellini.

Now, we’re getting to the home stretch!

Finishing the Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup

We added the baby spinach leaves and they wilt immediately. The soup is ready to serve. Wasn’t that easy? And you know what? This soup can be the basis of many other delicious soups.

Tips on variations:

• Tex-Mex Soup — instead of tortellini add beans, corn, cumin, and top with crushed tortilla chips.
• Italian Soup — instead of tortellini add cannellini beans, switch the petite tomatoes with green chiles for Italian seasoned petite tomatoes and keep the salsa, it’s good! You could add zucchini to it and orecchiette.
• Vegetarian Soup — omit the chicken and tortellini and add beans, tofu, vegetables you like.
• Chinese Soup — Omit the tortellini add a bit of ginger to the broth and soy sauce along with the chicken. Instead of the olive oil to saute the garlic use a bit of sesame oil. Ditch the canned tomatoes but keep the salsa. That will keep the zest instead of the oriental hot sauces like Sambal Oelek. Use bok choy for the green or whichever greens you like. Use Chinese noodles for the pasta, any kind you like.

YOU MAY NEED . . .

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Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup Recipe

This zesty vegetable tortellini soup comes together quickly whether you use rotissierie chicken or chicken tenders. Once the broth, canned diced tomatoes, salsa are simmering it’s only a matter of putting in the shredded or diced chicken, fresh tortellini, and spinach then you’re spicy chicken spinach soup is ready to eat.

Chicken Spinach Tortellini Soup with a Southwestern Flair

Spicy chicken soup with fresh tortellini pasta and baby spinach. The zest comes from the green chiles in the petite tomatoes plus the chunky salsa. Tasty and quick to make. 

4.98 from 40 votes

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Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American, Italian

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Servings: 8 people

Calories: 385kcal

Author: Marisa Franca

Ingredients

• 1 pound chicken tenders in bite size pieces or rotissiere shredded.
• 6 oz baby spinach
• 10 oz fresh cheese tortellini
• 2 quarts low-sodium chicken or vegetable stock
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 1 onion chopped
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 14 oz. petite cut tomatoes with green chiles
• 1 cup chunky salsa hot, medium, or mild
• salt to taste
• pepper to taste

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

• In a large Dutch Oven or pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add garlic and onion and cook until the onion sweats. Lightly salt and pepper.  
  
• Add the chicken bites and continue to cook until the chicken bites lightly brown. Lightly salt and pepper. (If using the rotissiere chicken skip this step)
• Add the broth, oregano, petite cut tomatoes, and salsa. Bring to a gentle simmer. Now add the shredded rotisserie chicken and again bring to a simmer. 
• Add the tortellini; bring to a simmer and cook uncovered until the tortellinni are tender -- about 7 to 8 minutes. 
  
• Stir in spinach. It will wilt right away. Serve hot. 
  

Nutrition

Calories: 385kcal | Carbohydrates: 28g | Protein: 23g | Fat: 19g | Saturated Fat: 4g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 778mg | Potassium: 591mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 44.7% | Vitamin C: 11.3% | Calcium: 10.2% | Iron: 15.2%

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