Frugal Yet Delicious Tortellini With Leftover Chicken Filling

This recipe is a celebration of chicken leftovers, turning yesterday’s dinner into today’s gourmet feast. Don’t have a chicken leftover, but instead have some of that Christmas turkey still hanging out in your fridge or freezer? No worries, it’s time to give that turkey a new lease on life! Simply swap out the chicken in this recipe for turkey, and voila! You’ve got yourself a fantastic dish that’ll have everyone coming back for seconds. And let’s not forget the wine pairing because every great meal deserves an equally great companion.

So, whether you’re using a chicken or turkey, remember, the key to culinary bliss lies in the perfect food and wine paring. With the right wine by your side, your chicken leftover tortellini will reach new heights of deliciousness!

Wine Pairing Recommendations

Pairing pasta with wine is an art, and the sauce is its muse! When it comes to our chicken leftover tortellini, the sauce dictates the ideal food and wine pairing. For a creamy tomato sauce like boscaiola, reach for classic Italian Sangiovese or Barbera. Their acidity cuts through the richness of the sauce, harmonizing with the dish.

However, if you’re making pesto sauce for your chicken leftover pasta, you’ll want something like Fiano or Gavi. These wines have a refreshing taste and go perfectly with the herby flavors of pesto.

Bottom line, pick Italian wines to go with this pasta – after all, they’re made for each other!

Barbera, Cortese di Gavi, Fiano, Frugal Gourmet, Sangiovese

Find these and other great wines at WineBid.

Use this link to get $10 discount off your first purchase.

Recipe at a glance:

Making ahead:

Unquestionably, making this chicken leftover tortellini might seem like a lot of work, but trust us, it’s worth it! Plus, the great thing is, you can make a big batch of this pasta and freeze it for up to six months. That’s what we usually do at home. Then, whenever you need a delicious meal, just you’re your favorite past sauce and you’re all set!

Additionally, you can prepare chicken filling and let it sit in a fridge for up to 3 days! Better yet, you can store it using these vacuum storage bags in your freezer for up to 3 months!

Tips and tricks to make this pasta dish a success

Ideally, it’s best to have your pasta ready around the same time as your sauce. But if your pasta is done cooking before the sauce, you can prevent it from sticking by adding a little oil to it.

On the other hand, if your sauce is ready before the pasta, you can keep it warm on the side and gently heat it up again when the pasta is ready to be added.

We strongly recommend adding cooked pasta to the sauce and simmering them together to help the pasta absorb as much of the delicious sauce as it can.

Ingredients:

Substitutions

• We’ve tried this pasta with roast duck leftovers, and it was fantastic! It’s also a great way to use up leftover Christmas turkey. Just shred the turkey meat and cook it with onions, oregano, salt, and pepper. If you have lots of turkey left, double the quantity of onions for extra flavor.
• There are plenty of pasta sauces that pair perfectly with this chicken leftover meat stuffed pasta. We recommend boscaiola sauce, just like the one described in this recipe, or basil pesto sauce mixed with a tablespoon of olive oil and 1/3 cup dry white wine.

Tools to use in this recipe

We use Marcato Atlas Pasta Maker with a motor.

This Italian-made pasta machine allows us to make authentic pasta at home. It includes dough roller with easily adjustable dial that regulates thickness of pasta dough, and narrow and wide cutters.

Find them all on Amazon

Cutting Board

Chef’s Knife

Stainless Steel Bowls

Frying Pans

Cooking Pot

Spatula

Colander

Casserole Dish

Round Cookie Cutter

This is how we do it

Recipe Card

Chicken Leftovers Tortellini Recipe

This tortellini recipe is perfect for anyone trying to save a bit of money and not waste any of their leftover rotisserie chicken or Christmas turkey. All you need is the skill to roll out pasta dough, and you can whip up a fantastic meal for you and your family. We suggest using creamy boscaiola or pesto sauce with these tortellini, but you can try lots of other sauces too!

Prep Time 10 minutes mins

Cook Time 1 hour hr

Resting time 1 hour hr

Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup zero-zero flour
• 1 cup white all-purpose flour
• 3 cups chicken breasts leftovers shredded into small pieces
• 1 onion
• 1 tbsp. oregano
• 1 tbsp. garlic powder
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil for frying

Instructions

Making pasta dough:

• Put measured out flour onto a clean work surface or into a large mixing bowl.
• Create a well or mound in the center of the flour. This is where you’ll mix your wet ingredients.
• Crack all the eggs into the center of the well.
• Using a fork or your fingers, gradually whisk the eggs while incorporating small amounts of flour from the edges of the well. Continue mixing until the dough starts to come together and becomes too thick to mix with a fork.
• Once the dough begins to take shape, use your hands to knead it into a smooth, elastic ball. This process usually takes about 5-10 minutes. If the dough feels too sticky, you can add a sprinkle of flour. If it’s too dry, you can add a few drops of water.
• Once the dough is smooth and elastic, wrap it in plastic wrap and let it rest for at least 30 minutes at room temperature. This allows the gluten to relax and makes the dough easier to roll out.
• After resting, the pasta dough is ready to be rolled.

Making chicken leftover meat filling:

• Shred chicken leftover using a fork or just your fingers into small shreds. Set it aside till you wok on the onions.
• Finely dice onion and set it aside. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the large fry pan and turn the heat to medium. Once the pan is hot, add onions and season it with salt, pepper and oregano. Stir it regularly to make sure that there are no burnt onion pieces in your filling.
• Once the onion becomes translucent, about 5 minutes, add shredded leftover chicken meat. Mix everything together and lower the heat to medium-low. Continue stirring the meat with the onions to incorporate onions into the meat. Do this for another 8-10 minutes.
• Once done, set the chicken filling aside and let it cool down completely

Making tortellini with the chicken leftover meat filling:

• After resting, the pasta dough is ready to be rolled out. You can use a rolling pin to roll it out by hand or a pasta machine for a thinner, more consistent result.
• Dust your work surface with flour to prevent the dough from sticking. Divide the dough into smaller portions for easier handling.
• Take one portion of the dough and roll it out into a thin sheet. The sheet should be thin but not too thin to tear easily.
• Lay the rolled-out pasta dough over the flat surface and using a round cutter or a glass to cut the dough into circles of about 2-3 inches in diameter.
• Place a small amount of chicken meat filling in the center of each dough circle. Be careful not to overfill. Moisten the edges of the dough with water using your finger or a pastry brush.
• Fold the dough circle in half, creating a half-moon shape. Press the edges together to seal, making sure there are no air pockets. Then, bring the two corners of the half-moon together, overlapping slightly, and press to seal, forming the classic tortellini shape.
• Roll out another portion of the dough. Continue filling and shaping the remaining dough circles until all the filling is used up.
• Once all the dough and filling is used up you can either cook tortellini and serve them with your favorite sauce or stop and freeze tortellini for the future use.

Cooking and serving chicken leftovers tortellini:

• Bring a pot of salted water to a boil. Carefully drop the tortellini into the boiling water and cook for 2-3 minutes or until they float to the surface. Be careful not to overcrowd the pot
• Once cooked, remove the tortellini from the water using a slotted spoon and serve them immediately with your favorite sauce. Optionally, garnish with grated Parmesan cheese and fresh herbs.

Course Dinner

Cuisine Italian

Keyword chicken leftovers recipe, chicken leftovers tortellini, chicken tortellini, homemade pasta