Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup is an easy copycat recipe with chicken and Italian seasoning. Enjoy a warm, cozy dinner ready in 30 minutes!
Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Soup isn’t the only famous Soup Recipe easily made at home. You won’t believe how easy this wildly popular Olive Garden Gnocchi Soup is to make! Be sure to serve it with a simple salad tossed in our Copycat Olive Garden’s Salad Dressing.
Sabrina’s Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
It’s hard not to love Olive Garden. Sure, it’s not the most authentic, but with their family-friendly recipes and never-ending pastas, soups, salads, and breadsticks, you get a dinner everyone loves and your money’s worth. It’s hard to pick a favorite soup (with bottomless soup, you don’t have to), but Creamy Chicken Gnocchi is definitely a top choice.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 2 cups chicken breast , cooked and diced
- 1 stalk celery , diced
- 1/2 onion , diced
- 2 cloves garlic , minced
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- kosher salt , to taste
- coarse ground black pepper , to taste
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- 16 ounces potato gnocchi
- 2 cups half and half
- 1 cup fresh spinach , roughly chopped
Instructions
- Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat.
- Add celery, onions, garlic, and carrots and saute for 2-3 minutes, until onions are translucent.
- Add cooked chicken, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and thyme and bring to a boil.
- Gently stir in gnocchi and boil for 3-4 minutes.
- Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes.
- Stir in half and half and spinach and cook 1-2 minutes, until spinach is tender. Serve hot.
Nutrition
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Table of Contents
About This Recipe
Making a copycat Olive Garden soup is the best way to enjoy this delicious, addicting meal! For less than dinner for one at Olive Garden, you can feed the whole family (with leftovers) and there’s no need to beg the cooks to make any special requests.
Chef’s Note
Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi is a quick and easy soup recipe with simple ingredients you have on hand or easily pick up at the grocery store. The best gnocchi to use are the quick-cooking refrigerated kind, but you can also find shelf-stable gnocchi with dried pastas. Some stores sell frozen gnocchi, but it will take a little longer to cook.
How to Store
Store: Soup can be at room temperature for up to 2 hours before it needs to be cooled and stored. Store cooled Chicken and Gnocchi Soup in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Reheat: Reheat leftover soup the stove top for best taste. You’ll want to reheat it covered over low or medium-low heat until it’s just simmering. You don’t want to heat to boiling or the milk will scald.
Freeze: Place soup in freezer-safe bags and lay flat on a baking tray. Freeze flat for 1 hour, or until solid, then keep in the freezer stacked for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before reheating on the stove top.
Ideas to Serve
If you’re not using our Olive Garden copycat salad dressing, you can try another recipe like Italian Salad or a Caesar Salad for your own unlimited soup and salad night. Don’t forget a side of French Breadsticks (or Dinner Rolls) brushed with butter and sprinkled with garlic salt and Parmesan cheese. Chicken and Gnocchi Soup is the perfect starter another Olive Garden Copycat, Olive Garden Five Cheese Ziti al Forno.
Alternative Cooking Techniques
Slow Cooker
- In a large skillet, heat olive oil over medium-high heat.
- Saute onion, celery, and carrots until onion is translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Add garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, until just fragrant.
- Transfer the onion mixture to crock pot.
- Add remaining ingredients, except gnocchi, half and half, and spinach.
- Cook covered on low for 3-4 hours. Add gnocchi and cook covered for another hour on low heat.
- Stir in half and half and fresh spinach and serve once the spinach has wilted slightly.
Instant Pot
- Set Instant Pot to sauté function and add olive oil.
- Once oil is shimmering, add onions, celery, and carrots and sauté until onions are translucent, about 2-3 minutes.
- Stir in garlic and cook, until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add remaining ingredients, except gnocchi, spinach, and half and half.
- Secure pressure cooker lid and set valve on sealing. Cook on Soup setting for 15 minutes.
- Naturally release pressure for 5 minutes, then quick release.
- Remove lid and place Instant Pot on Saute function again.
- Stir in gnocchi and cook for 4-5 minutes, until soft.
- Turn off the pressure cooker, stir in half and half and spinach, then serve.
FAQ’s
While Chicken Gnocchi Soup is absolutely delicious, but the most popular soup at Olive Garden is Zuppa Toscana. With our recipe collection, you can make both soups at home and decide which is your family’s favorite choice.
Pasta is a mixture of flour and water or sometimes eggs, that holds its shape when cooked with some chewy tenderness. Gnocchi takes a simple pasta recipe and adds mashed potatoes for a soft, tender, pillowy pasta.
Variations
Chicken: Use a homemade or store-bought Rotisserie Chicken or pre-shredded chicken from the deli. Brown Italian sausage or bacon, drain grease, and add to the onion mixture for more savory flavor!
Gnocchi: Instead of gnocchi, you can use pasta like tortellini, orzo, or shells. Add cooked white rice or diced potatoes for a gluten-free Chicken “Gnocchi” Soup.
Cream: To make this creamy soup even richer, use heavy cream instead of half and half. You can make this soup recipe lighter by substituting whole milk.
Seasonings: Even though Olive Garden doesn’t use them, you can add other seasonings like parsley, nutmeg, Parmesan cheese, or rosemary for Italian flavors.
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I’m not usually a soup person but this was amazing, it tastes just like the one I had at Olive Garden!
So glad to hear Diana and thanks for the five star review!