Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup copycat is every bit as creamy and delicious as the restaurant version, made in less than 30 minutes!
Love gnocchi? You’ll go crazy for my Gnocchi in Tomato Cream Sauce and Creamy Lemon Garlic Shrimp and Gnocchi! And don’t forget to serve them up with these easy homemade OLIVE GARDEN BREADSTICKS.
There’s a reason nearly everyone loves Olive Garden. Their food is good! And addictive! A quick search of Pinterest reveals hundreds of Olive Garden copycat recipes — from their Italian salad dressing to their toasted ravioli. I can think of a few reasons why seemingly everyone wants to recreate these dishes at home. First of all, it’s more budget-friendly to eat at home. Second, you can make as much as you want (leftovers!). Third, you don’t have to put on pants that don’t have an elastic waistband and drive to the restaurant when a craving hits. And, fourth, you don’t have to take your kids out to eat. I probably should have put that as my first reason, actually. Let’s face it, taking your kids out to eat is the ultimate gamble. And sometimes you’re just not in the mood to test your luck.
Let’s just say the perfect storm of all of these reasons came together for me one fateful Saturday. Not to be outdone, I decided to make my own Chicken Gnocchi Soup, darn it. And no one and no pants with a zipper and a button were going to stop me. Luckily, I had some gnocchi in the freezer and the rest of the ingredients on hand (it’s like I unknowingly prepared for this exact moment).
The rest, they say, is Olive Garden recipe history. The soup was delicious, no one had to go anywhere, and — most importantly — there were plenty of leftovers.
HOW DO YOU MAKE GNOCCHI?
Gnocchi is made from potatoes, flour, and eggs. I’m not sure what genius came up with this combination, but I am forever grateful. Making gnocchi is fun and rewarding, if you have the time and inclination. I’ve made it before but it’s been a while and now I just tend to use the store-bought varieties, as I find they work well in most recipes. If you want to try your hand at your own homemade gnocchi, allow me to refer you to this recipe. I hope you enjoy it and that it turns out perfectly.
WHAT KIND OF PRE-COOKED CHICKEN SHOULD I USE?
For this recipe, I suggest you use boneless, skinless chicken that’s already been cooked and diced because it makes this recipe come together more easily. To do this yourself, I recommend dicing the chicken before cooking it, as it will cook quicker that way. You can cook it in a little bit of olive oil until it’s just done. Add a little salt and pepper to it if you like.
Another option is to buy pre-shredded, cooked chicken at your grocery store. It tends to be more expensive, but can be worth it. The only drawbacks are that you’re going to have shredded chicken instead of nice, little, bite-size cubes in your soup and sometimes I think that this kind of chicken tends to have a little bit of a chewier texture than when it’s been more recently cooked.
CAN I MAKE THIS IN A SLOW COOKER?
Yes, yes, you can make this soup in a slow cooker. Here’s what I would change though, in this recipe. I would still definitely use cooked, diced chicken. So have that at the ready. Also, go ahead and saute the veggies and garlic. THEN put the chicken and veggies all together in the bottom of your slow cooker. Add the liquids and all the other ingredients except the gnocchi, half and half, and spinach. Cook on low for three to four hours, adding the gnocchi in for the last hour of cooking. Before serving, add the half and half and spinach and stir to combine. The spinach should wilt quickly. Serve. Enjoy. And try not to eat it all in one sitting.
What people are saying about this Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
“Easy to make and delicious. It ended up like a whole dinner in a bowl. Next time I might try using a rotisserie chicken.” – Don
“This soup is so delicious! It’s so easy and flavorful. I love to top it off with some grated parmesan cheese.” – Erin
“I made this with my Thanksgiving turkey left overs and it turned out fantastic! Thank you so much for the recipe!” – Krystal
Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients
- 3-4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cooked and diced
- 1 stalk of celery, chopped
- ½ white onion, diced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- ½ cup shredded carrots
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 4 cups low sodium chicken broth
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 teaspoon thyme
- 16 ounces potato gnocchi
- 2 cups half and half, see note
- 1 cup fresh spinach, roughly chopped
Instructions
- Heat olive 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 chicken, chicken broth, salt, pepper, and thyme, bring to a boil, then gently stir in gnocchi. Boil for 3-4 minutes longer before reducing heat to a simmer and cooking for 10 minutes.
- Stir in half and half and spinach and cook another 1-2 minutes until spinach is tender. Taste, add salt and pepper if needed, and serve.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Can you use frozen gnocchi
This recipe hasn’t been tested for frozen gnocchi but I’m sure you could!
I did end up using frozen gnocchi and it was delicious! I also did the 1 cup heavy cream and 1 cup half n half. I think it was better than Olive Garden’s
I’ve made this twice now. I make a much smaller batch though and add 1/2 a teaspoon or so of crushed red pepper for some heat.
This Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup recipe turned out absolutely delicious! The creamy texture and perfectly seasoned chicken make it so comforting. I loved how easy your instructions were to follow the soup tasted just like the restaurant version. I also share easy homemade recipes on my website, so feel free to check them out. Thanks for such a perfect copycat recipe!
Thank you for your kind review! I’m glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
Mine was bland as is but I doctored it up. The half and half seems to dilute them quite a bit, and I didn’t even use the full amount in the recipe.
For more flavor:
Use better than bullion instead of broth and double the amount of bullion for more chicken flavor
Use the whole onion
Double the garlic
Fresh thyme
Dash of worcestershire sauce
Salt and pepper GENEROUSLY
My family loves this recipe! The more you make it, the easier it is to remember how to make. I also add some heavy whipping cream for a creamier base. Delicious!
Most definitely a five star recipe. We really loved it. I added about a quarter cup of heavy cream just a thicken it up a little bit but most definitely five star all the way.
Made it for the 1st time tonight and I gotta say it was not only easy, but cooked up super fast for a work night supper. I used 1 chicken breast, I feel like 3-4 would be too much for our liking. I could probably have used 1 1/2 -2 breasts and my hubby says it needed more gnocchi (the recipe called for 16oz bag, I used a 12 oz bag…I agree with him for next time.) I added 1 1/2 tsp of butter at the end. I’d do that again. Were also a – never enough butter – family. I usually only cook on Saturdays Sundays and Wednesdays. And the fam eats leftovers or they’re on their own. Sunday I made chicken pot pie. I cook my chicken in the crock pot for that bc it come out tender without needing to pound it. I doubled the chicken so id have extra chicken already cooked for the soup tonight. #preppingforthewin i also browned the garlic to add some depth. And i eyeballed the thyme only because i had fresh thyme from our garden drying on the herb rack. Hubby asked where we were going to go out to eat if this didn’t turn out ok… a joke of course…he had 2nds! AND said we should keep it in the cold weather rotation. We paired it with Italian bread sticks. It was filling and warm and comforting. A new classic! Well done.
My granddaughter made this for dinner. This was delish, better than olive garden.
It’s now on our meal rotation.
Wonderful and quick soup. I added saute’d baby bella mushroom used1 can of chicken but any leftover roasted chicken would work well also.
I also added a dash of nutmeg always enhances a milk based soup.
it tasted really good, but for some reason mine was wayyyy too watery, even though i followed the recipe step for step (including adding heavy whipping cream to try to make it thicker and creamier) i don’t think it’s the recipes fault definitely mine lol but again it tasted good
Hi Bonnie! I can see how youd think it was a little watery. When I got to the part where I add the spinach and cream, I thought the same. I turned the heat up to medium for about 10 min. It Def thickened up a bit more. Hope this helps!