Even though it was a sunny day in San Diego, I was in the mood for soup. I decided to buy a rotisserie chicken from the deli at our local grocery store and a bag of mini tortellini and make a chicken soup.

I heated a few tablespoons of olive oil in my Dutch oven and threw in carrots, celery and onion, along with a teaspoon each of kosher salt and pepper, to start.

Next, I added the rotisserie chicken that I had removed from the bones and cut into chunks. I used about 3/4 of the chicken.

After I added the chicken, I poured in a 14-1/2 ounce can of diced tomatoes and two cartons of unsalted chicken stock. You can also use low sodium if you prefer. I just happened to come across unsalted chicken stock at Walmart, so grabbed it for my soup. I don’t like to use a lot of salt, you can always add more, but can’t take it away. It’s not that I don’t like the taste, but I try not to eat too much sodium. Once the soup came to a boil, I added the tortellini and cooked it until it was done, 15 additional minutes. I added another teaspoon of kosher salt once I added the stock to my Dutch oven and added a sprinkling of pepper to my bowl of soup before serving. I served the soup with a nice loaf of soft French bread … total comfort.

Ingredients

• 1/2-3/4 rotisserie chicken

• 8 ounces dried tortellini

• 7 carrots, peeled and cut into chunks

• 7 stalks of celery, cut into chunks

• 1/2 yellow onion, sliced into quarter rounds

• 1 teaspoon thyme

• 2 teaspoons kosher salt

• 1 teaspoon pepper

• 1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

• 2 32-ounce cartons of unsalted or low sodium chicken stock

• 2 cups water

• 1 14-1/2 can ounce diced tomatoes

• 3 tablespoons olive oil

Directions

Heat oil in Dutch oven. Add carrots, celery and onion, 1 teaspoon of the salt and the pepper. Sauté until vegetables start to soften, 5-6 minutes. Remove rotisserie chicken form the bone and cut into chunks. Add to the vegetables. Next, add diced tomatoes, chicken stock and water and cook on medium high until soup starts to boil. Add tortellini and cook until done, 15 minutes more.

Serve with bread of your choice and enjoy!

Until next time, Kris