Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Olive Garden’s Chicken Gnocchi Soup is comfort food at its finest. It is a thick, creamy soup filled with tender diced chicken, soft potato gnocchi that practically melt in your mouth, and just enough fresh spinach to make you feel like it is healthy. It is one of the restaurant’s three rotating soups, and it is the one everyone hopes for when they sit down.
A bowl at Olive Garden comes with unlimited refills, which is great. But making a big pot at home means you have leftovers for days.
Why Make It at Home?
A pot of this soup costs about $12 to make and serves 6 generous bowls. At Olive Garden, you need to order an entree to get the unlimited soup. At home, this is the entree. Add a loaf of crusty bread and dinner is done.
Tips & Variations
- Use store-bought gnocchi. You can make fresh gnocchi if you want, but the shelf-stable packages from the pasta aisle work perfectly. DeLallo and Rao’s are both excellent.
- Do not boil the half-and-half. Once you add the cream, keep the heat on low. Boiling causes the cream to break and the soup becomes grainy instead of silky.
- Add more vegetables. Diced celery and corn are great additions. Some people add diced potatoes too, though the gnocchi are already potato-based.
- Freeze without the gnocchi. If you want to freeze portions, leave the gnocchi out and cook fresh ones when you reheat. Frozen gnocchi in soup turn to mush.
More Olive Garden Recipes to Try
The soup is the opener — here’s what to serve alongside it:
- Olive Garden Breadsticks — the butter-brushed, garlic-salted breadsticks that are endless for a reason. 10 minutes start to finish with this recipe.
- Olive Garden Italian Dressing — the creamy, tangy dressing that turns any salad into an Olive Garden salad.
- Olive Garden Minestrone Soup — the vegetable-packed tomato soup from the same menu, great if you want a second soup option.
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