Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup is creamy, flavorful and ready in just 30 minutes. This Chicken and Gnocchi Olive Garden Recipe can be made on the stove, slow cooker or instant pot. It’s as creamy as our Clam Chowder recipe!
Like Soups From Olive Garden? Try our other Copycat Olive Garden Recipes: Zuppa Toscana Soup, Pasta e Fagioli, and Olive Garden Minestrone Soup. Pair it with Stuffed Ziti Fritta, another Olive Garden copycat recipe, for a full meal.
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Chicken Gnocchi Soup
This Chicken and Gnocchi Olive Garden Recipe is the epitome of a cozy, cold weather soup recipe. The rich and creamy broth engulf’s tender chicken, soft gnocchi, healthy vegetables and flavorful seasonings. It’s also pretty adaptable to suit your needs.
Ingredients For Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Here are the ingredients to make Chicken Gnocchi Soup Olive Garden:
Protein – chicken breasts
Vegetables – onion, carrot, celery, garlic and spinach
Fats – Olive oil and butter
Liquids – chicken broth (instant pot bone broth) and half and half
Spices – thyme, nutmeg, salt and pepper
Flour
What Kind of Chicken Should I Use?
Pre-cooked skinless chicken breast is the way to go. Dice up a few chicken breasts, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and add to a sauce pan pre-heated with some olive oil over medium high heat. Flip and stir until the chicken is cooked through. Set aside until you’re ready to make your soup.
You can also snag a rotisserie chicken from the store and cut up.
How To Make Gnocchi
This Olive Garden Copycat recipe calls for store bough gnocchi. Homemade gnocchi is time consuming and messy, so we usually stick with store bought for this one. If you insist on making your own (more power to you!) here’s a popular gnocchi recipe to check out.
How To Make Slow Cooker Chicken Gnocchi Soup
This Chicken and Gnocchi Soup Olive Garden coverts easily to the slow cooker. Only a few minor edits are needed, mainly the order in which you add the ingredients and when you add them in. Check out the recipe card before for the Slow Cooker instructions.
How To Make Instant Pot Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Making Chicken Gnocchi Soup in the Instant Pot is just as easy as making it on the stove top. As with slow cooker chicken gnocchi soup, instant pot chicken gnocchi soup just mixes up the order in which you add the ingredients and when you add them in. Check out the recipe card before for the Instant Pot instructions.
Olive Garden Copycat Recipe Tips
- The soup will get thicker as it cooks. Keep that in mind when serving. If you want it thicker, just wait an extra 5 minutes or so.
- Feel free to use standard size or mini size gnocchi. You can always cut the standard size gnocchi in half.
- Sauce – Continually stir the sauce, after the half and half is added, to avoid scorching and separation.
- Vegetables – dice up the veggie’s as close in size as possible for even cooking. Fresh spinach works best. Frozen spinach will turn to mush.
- Broth – Don’t cut corners. Make sure to use high qualify chicken broth, such as our Instant Pot Bone broth, or the end result will suffer.
The Best Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe Variations
Don’t have gnocchi? Sub in small pasta, orzo or even a diced potato (will need to cook longer to soften).
Replace the chicken with browned sausage for an extra flavor boost.
This is a great soup recipe to sneak in extra veggies. Think peas, zucchini, etc.
Thinner Soup – this soup gets pretty thick. To thin out the broth, just add an extra cup of chicken broth.
What To Serve With This Soup
The only thing we eat with Gnocchi Olive Garden Soup is bread. Think one hour dinner rolls, slices of French bread or even muffaletta bread if we have some on hand.
How Long Does This Soup Last In The Refrigerator?
Most soups keep 3-4 days in an air tight container. The gnocchi will continue to suck up liquid, so if you know you won’t eat the whole pot, I highly recommend adding the gnocchi when ready to eat vs all at once. To re-heat, just transfer the soup to a medium sauce pan and heat low and slow.
Can You Freeze Leftover Gnocchi Soup?
Negative. Dairy-based soups and gnocchi, don’t freeze well. The texture of the soup will suffer and who want’s that??
Soup recipes from the Olive Garden lead the “fall soup recipes” list. Here are a few others:
Jambalaya Soup
Sancocho Dominicano
Irish Potato Soup
Carrot Ginger Soup
Creamy Potato and Leek Soup
Split Pea Soup
10 Minute Egg Drop Soup
10 Minute Creamy Tomato Soup
Unstuffed Cabbage Soup
What Wine Goes Best With Gnocchi
Riesling, Pinot Grigio
## I’d love to hear from you! Use hashtag #foodieandwine when you’ve made this recipe and post to social media! Leave a comment below, after you’ve made it, to let me know your thoughts!
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp Olive Oil
- 3 Tbsp Butter, Salted or Unsalted
- 1 Stalk Celery, Sliced
- 1 Cup Diced White Onion
- ½ Cup Shredded Carrots
- 2 Garlic Cloves, Minced
- ¼ Cup All-purpose Flour
- 2-3 Cups Instant Pot Bone Broth (or Low Sodium Chicken Broth) (*Note 1)
- 2 Cups Half and Half
- ¼ tsp Dried Thyme (or 1/2 tsp Fresh Thyme)
- ⅛ tsp Ground Nutmeg
- 2-3 Cooked Chicken Breasts, Diced (*Note 2)
- 16 oz Ready-To-Use Potato Gnocchi (*Note 3)
- 1 Cup Fresh Spinach, Chopped
- Salt, To Taste
- Black Pepper, To Taste
Instructions
Stove Top Version:
- Add butter and olive oil to a large soup pot and pre-heat over medium high. Sauté the onion, celery and carrots, until tender (approx. 2-3 minutes).
- Add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the flour and cook for approx. 1 minute.
- Slowly pour in the chicken broth and half and half, stirring consistently, until the broth starts to thicken.
- Add the spinach and cook until the spinach is wilted (approx. 2-3 minutes). Salt and pepper, to taste, and serve immediately.
Slow Cooker Version:
- Turn the slow cooker to high, or use a skillet over medium high heat, and add the butter and olive oil. Once the butter is melted, sauté the onion, celery, and carrots until softened.
- Add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the flour and cook for approx. 1 minute.
- Transfer the vegetable mixture to your slow cooker (if sautéed on the stove top). Add in the cooked chicken, thyme, nutmeg and chicken broth and stir to combine.
- Cook on low for 3-4 hours, adding in the gnocchi for the last hour of cooking.
- Right before serving, add the half and half and spinach and stir to combine. The spinach should wilt in approx. 2-3 minutes. Salt and pepper, to taste, and serve immediately.
Instant Pot Version:
- Add in the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds.
- Add the flour and cook for approx. 1 minute.
- Add in the thyme, nutmeg and chicken broth giving it a quick stir.
- Set Instant Pot to "soup" setting and set timer for 15 minutes.
- Once done cooking, naturally release for 5 minutes and then quick release.
- Click "off" and then click the "sauté" button. Add the chicken, gnocchi, Half & Half and spinach to the soup. (For thinner soup, add in an extra cup of chicken broth).
Paulette
Sunday 1st of January 2023
#foodieandwine Great recipe! The thyme and nutmeg are just the PERFECT balance. I doubled all the veggies, used a little extra broth to accommodate the extra veggies, and shredded a couple chicken breasts I had cooked earlier (my family prefers shredded to chopped chicken). In our opinion (and we LOVE OG soup), this is even better than the restaurant soup.
Linn
Saturday 11th of December 2021
I think that might be a bit too much butter!!
Darcey Olson
Saturday 11th of December 2021
Thank you so much for the heads up!!! It’s been fixed. :)