In this post: Quick Pesto Chicken Soup with Ravioli and Poached Egg

This Quick Pesto Chicken Soup with Ravioli and Poached Egg is one of my best tricky recipes for nailing a comforting, complete meal with minimum muss and fuss. I tap some of my favorite store-bought items – great chicken stock, a rotisserie chicken, my favorite pesto, and some fresh ravioli – and preside over their very happy, healthy marriage by way of this lightning-fast soup.

I love making homemade stocks, yes, and ravioli for that matter. But these aren’t things that I’m ever going to just whip up on a busy weeknight – that’s not a mood that has ever struck at 5:00 on a Monday night, you know? But by stirring a bit of your favorite pesto into a high-quality, store-bought chicken stock, you amplify the flavor and infuse your pot of soup with something special, giving that ravioli a very nice place to reside.

I have long-loved store-bought rotisserie chickens; we ate plenty of them growing up, and in a pinch – when roasting one from scratch isn’t in the cards – I find that they’re a wonderful thing to reach for when you want to get a solid meal on the table with little stress and time spent. Here, with this Quick Pesto Chicken Soup with Ravioli and Poached Egg, I shred a rotisserie chicken into the pot of simmering pesto broth and, thanks to the supporting cast of freshly chopped onion, celery, carrot, and frozen peas (also an amazing season-less time-saver), you wind up with a wonderfully well-balanced soup. Topping things off with a freshly poached egg (see my method below!), whose yolk oozes and runs down into the broth, silkening and essentially saucing it, just seems like the perfect way to finish this lovely, comforting and EASY soup.

How to Perfectly Poach an Egg

You’ll need:

4 eggs

1 Tbsp distiller white vinegar

Crack an egg into a small ramekin or bowl.

Bring a medium saucepan of water to a simmer over med-high heat. Add the vinegar. Using a slotted spoon, swirl the water around creating a whirlpool effect. Carefully and gently slip an egg into the water. The eggs will whirl and swirl around, giving you the feeling that it isn’t going to work. But worry not! Just give it a minute or two, and the whites will come together, wrapping themselves around the yolk and creating a perfect pouch of cooked egg.

Once the egg has stopped moving around, give it about 3 to 4 minutes to cook, then gently remove it from the water with a slotted spoon. Repeat with all of the eggs you wish to poach.

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Quick Pesto Chicken Soup with Ravioli and Poached Egg

Sweet simplicity. A wonderfully warming, cozy soup that comes together incredibly fast. Packed with vegetables, pasta and chicken, this is one hearty and healthy meal that you can feel great about, for so many reasons.

Course Soup

Servings 4

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion diced
• 2 carrots thinly sliced
• 2 stalks celery thinly sliced
• Salt and pepper
• 1 Tsp Italian seasoning
• 1 rotisserie chicken
• ¼ cup pesto homemade or your favorite store-bought
• 2 quarts low-sodium chicken stock
• 8 oz frozen or fresh ravioli
• 1 heaping cup frozen peas
• 4 poached eggs see method in post

Instructions

1. Add the oil to a medium to large pot over medium heat. Add the diced onion, carrots and celery. Season with the Italian seasoning and some salt and pepper to taste. Cook until tender, stirring occasionally, about 6 to 8 minutes.
2. Remove the skin from the rotisserie chicken and discard. Pull the white and dark meat from the chicken, removing as much as you can, and add this meat to the pot with the veggies. Add the pesto and stir to mix everything. Add the stock, ravioli, and peas, and simmer (increase the heat to med-high) until the ravioli is done; about 5 minutes.
3. Ladle the soup into bowls and top each with a poached egg. Serve right away.