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Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup
A thick, creamy soup loaded with tender chicken, pillowy potato gnocchi, and fresh spinach. Olive Garden's coziest menu item, perfect for cold weather.
soup · olive-garden · chicken · gnocchi
🕑Prep10 min
🍳Cook30 min
⏱Total40 min
🍽Serves6
⭐DifficultyEasy
Ingredients
- 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breast, diced
- 1 package (16 oz) potato gnocchi
- 4 cups chicken broth
- 2 cups half-and-half
- 2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
- 1 medium carrot, shredded
- 1/2 medium onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Instructions
- 1.Cook the chicken and aromatics. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add the diced chicken and cook for 5-6 minutes until golden. Add the onion, carrot, and garlic and cook for another 3 minutes until softened.
- 2.Make the roux. Sprinkle the flour over the chicken and vegetables. Stir for 1-2 minutes until the flour is absorbed and lightly toasted. This thickens the soup and gives it body.
- 3.Add the liquids. Pour in the chicken broth and stir well, scraping up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Bring to a simmer. Add the gnocchi and cook for 3-4 minutes until they float to the surface — that means they are done.
- 4.Finish with cream and spinach. Reduce the heat to low and stir in the half-and-half. Add the chopped spinach and stir until it wilts, about 1 minute. Season with salt and pepper to taste. The soup should be thick and creamy — if it is too thin, simmer for a few more minutes.
- 5.Serve hot. Ladle into bowls and serve with crusty bread or Olive Garden-style breadsticks. The soup thickens as it sits, so add a splash of broth when reheating leftovers.
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.
