Chicken Meatball and Tortellini Soup - Tyler Florence

Minor modifications due to what I had on hand - but it must've worked, because my family says this is one of THE best meals they've ever had! I used sweet Italian sausage stuffed tortellini - and used bulk sausage instead of the chicken. GREAT recipe & a permanent addition to our recipe 'go-to's' for sure! Thanks for sharing!

I don't leave many reviews anywhere, but I felt obligated to do this. I normally love Tyler's recipes, but this one leaves out a couple of important points and therefor was a total flop for me. Most importantly, the sausage must be fresh, UNCOOKED sausage. Maybe he talks about this in his commentary, but I didn't have time to read that. We have chicken-apple sausage in virtually every store in the San Francisco bay area, but they are all pre-cooked like the Aidell's brand. If you buy that without knowing, you will have one heck of a time removing the non-existant casing (should have been my clue to stop, but I went on anyway.) You can't break up the sausage and make a meatball out of it. I ran the whole mess through a food processor...still no luck. The meatball mix was one big mess and a total waste of time and money. Second, if you actually put the smashed garlic in at the point he suggests and then continue to cook the onion/carrot/celery combo for 5 mins, you will end up with totally burned garlic. With the combo of burned garlic and meatballs that were a bust, I ended up just making the tortellini and putting jarred sauce over it. By the time I made it through the disasters above, the family was starving and I had no option. I admit I am not the best cook so maybe this whole thing is my fault. Believe me, that is not surprising. I have been wrong so many times in my life and certainly this will be far from the last :)) But just thought I had to put this out there in case there are other stupid people like me. Looks like the other reviewers knew what to do. Truly, I applaud them for their skills/knowledge. I wish I had it too. But, alas :))

Loved this soup. Used Recipe #417294 for the sausage. Made half the recipe for the two of us and still had some left over. Excellent and will use all the time.

3/11 O M G is this good! Using a small cookie scoop I made the balls w/ the chicken mixture and dropped them into the gently boiling soup. No frying (as Tyler suggests) or baking necessary. They turned out PERFECT and had a great texture. Made the soup broth as suggested but I rough chopped all the veggies in the food processor. I like a more rustic look to my soup, and I hate chopping! I boiled 1# tortellini on a separate pot and added to the soup before serving. Overall, AMAZING! This beats any and all chicken soups I have ever made. This ROCKS! Thaks a bunch Brookelynne! UPDATE 2/13: I omitted the tortellini this time and used a mini farfellini, orzo would be good too. Again, boiled separately so everyone could add as much as they like. Just terrific!

Fantastic! Don't over think it - just get the ingredients and make it. It's a tad time consuming the first time around, but worth it! The next few times I've made it, it was a breeze.