Bring Olive Garden to Your Home Kitchen with this Comforting Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe

Serve Italian for dinner with this comforting copycat olive garden chicken gnocchi soup!

The Olive Garden is one of our favorite restaurants.

It’s no surprise that their Chicken Gnocchi soup is one of their customer favorite recipes.

It’s a soup with tender chicken & gnocchi, creamy broth, and spinach with the perfect mix of spices.

When a facebook reader passed on this recipe last year, it quickly became a family favorite. Although I’m not sure if this is technically a “copycat Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup recipe” -it’s mighty close!

It’s so very delicious and special – and would be perfect for Christmas Eve dinner.

How to Make Copycat Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Ingredients you’ll need:

• 4 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup diced celery
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 quart (4 cups) half n half (Or, if you don’t have half and half, mix 1/3 cup butter with milk to equal 4 cups)
• 28 oz (900 ml) chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp. dried parsley
• 1 cup carrots, shredded
• 1 cup spinach leaves, coarsely chopped
• 1 large chicken breast (to equal 1 cup diced, cooked chicken)
• 16 oz fresh gnocchi, ready to use

What is gnocchi?

Some of you may be wondering what gnocchi is. That’s a good question! I would describe it as a cross between a dumpling and pasta. It’s made with potatoes, flour, and eggs. Of course you can make it from scratch, but I choose to use the ready to use version for convenience sake.

How do I make Chicken and Gnocchi Soup if I don’t have half n half cream?

This is a very good question! In fact, I asked it myself when I made it today! I quickly googled how to substitute for half and half and ended up mixing 1/3 cup melted butter with milk to equal 4 cups.

I would definitely recommend half n half if possible, but this substitution method worked just fine – and the soup tastes divine!

Step one: Heat the butter and oil in a large soup pot and add the diced chicken. Cook until the chicken is no longer pink and cooked throughout. Remove from pan and add the onions , celery, and garlic. Sauté until tender.

If the vegetables seem to be getting too dry when sautéing, add in a little more butter.

Step 2: Whisk in the flour and cook for 1 minute.

Step 3: Whisk in the half and half and keep whisking until the mixture thickens.

Step 4: Whisk in the chicken broth and stir until mixture thickens again.

Step 5: Add spices, carrots, spinach leaves, gnocchi, and chicken to the broth. Simmer until heated through – about 20 minutes.

Other options for this Chicken Gnocchi Recipe:

To make this recipe even quicker, you can opt to use cooked, diced chicken or rotisserie chicken from the store rather than cook from raw.

If you want a heartier and thicker soup, use twice as much gnocchi as it calls for. It would be really yummy!

What to serve with Chicken Gnocchi Soup:

• These bread machine dinner buns would be delicious!
• English muffins toasted with butter is really good, too.
• You may want to do like Olive Garden does and serve it with a yummy salad with veggies and Italian dressing.

Other hearty soup recipes:

• Taco Soup
• White Chicken Chili
• Hamburger Barley Soup
• Creamy Curry Carrot Soup
• Spicy Pumpkin Soup
• Potato Soup & Dumplings
• Easy ham and bean soup
• Instant pot chicken noodle soup

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