Boring Noodles Need Not Apply

Last week I told you about the secret to this soup - baked chicken!  The other secret?  Our own chicken and turkey stock.  I think I've told you about the way we do Thanksgiving at our house, we cook the turkey a few days ahead of time, make stock, then Thanksgiving Day, the sliced turkey gets reheated in it's own stock.  After Thanksgiving was past and done - we had a crockpot full of stock to consider.  This year?  We froze it right alongside our chicken stock.  Why waste that slow cooked goodness?  While I would not use turkey stock alone for soup, it does add a richness that chicken stock just doesn't have.  So this time 50/50 chicken/turkey.  Andy said the longer it sat in the fridge the better it was for left overs.  He wasn't super excited about the tortellini suggesting just boring noodles next time.  Boring was his word, honest!

Tortellini Chicken Noodle Soup

Ingredients

1 1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped carrots (from about 5 medium)

1 cup chopped celery (from about 3 stalks)

1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 small)

4 cloves garlic, minced

4 (14.5 oz) cans low sodium-chicken broth (I did 4 cups homemade chicken stock, 4 cups homemade turkey stock)

1 1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

12 oz refrigerated three cheese tortellini*

1/2 cup packed parsley (stems and all), plus more for serving

2 1/2 - 3 cups cooked chopped chicken

Directions

Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium heat, add carrots, celery and onion and saute 3 - 4 minutes. Add garlic and saute 30 seconds longer. Stir in chicken broth, Italian seasoning and season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat then cover and boil 5 minutes. Add tortellini and place parsley in a mound submerged into broth on top of tortellini, cover and boil 6 - 8 minutes longer (or one minute less than time listed on package). Using tongs, remove parsley (I stirred it around in the soup first just to get all the flavor out). Stir in chicken and cook until heated through, about 1 minute. Serve warm, topped with chopped fresh parsley leaves.