Enjoy one or your favorite restaurant copycat soups at home with my version of Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup made with boneless cooked chicken, vegetables and gnocchi in a creamy chicken broth.
Do you love Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup and wish you could eat it more often? Now you can with this homemade copycat version that tastes just like the original.
My youngest daughter and I got to spend a lot of quality time together over the summer as both my husband and older daughter were working during the day.
She kept busy attending a few day camp sessions, volunteering for a township youth program, shopping, reading and completing her school summer assignments. However, every now and then we ventured out for lunch to some local restaurants.
One day while it was a little overcast and rainy, she decided she wanted to go to Olive Garden for soup and salad. It sounded like a good plan to me.
She has been there several times before and really loves their Chicken Gnocchi Soup; which is a creamy, chicken based soup with fresh spinach and gnocchi.
I usually get their Pasta e Fagioli or Minestrone, but the Chicken Gnocchi Soup sounded good to me too so we both ordered the same thing for lunch. Besides, if I wanted to try to make it at home for her I just had to try it for myself!
About a week later, I bought ingredients to try to replicate this soup at home and of course she was thrilled. This soup recipe makes quite a bit; so I like to make extra soup to freeze for later.
Besides, I need to stock pile some additional meals in the freezer for our oldest daughter who is away at college and cooking for herself.
This way she'll have some homemade prepared meals for when she comes home to visit that she can take back with her.
Ingredients Needed
For this recipe you'll need:
- butter
- celery
- onions
- carrots
- garlic
- all purpose flour
- ground nutmeg
- ground thyme
- fresh baby spinach
- cooked chicken
- heavy cream
- chicken broth
- gnocchi
How do you make Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup recipe?
Start by melting the butter over medium heat; then add celery, onions, carrots and garlic. Stir for 1-2 minutes until the celery starts to soften; then whisk in the flour and add the chicken broth.
Next, add diced cooked chicken, nutmeg and thyme; then increase the heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan; then add it to the soup along with the spinach and gnocchi.
You want to heat it a bit to temper it so that the cream doesn't curdle when you put it in the hot soup. Simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes or until gnocchi is cooked.
My family loves this Chicken Gnocchi Soup. It was delicious and tasted just like the restaurant version. The soup does thicken the longer it sits and even tastes better as leftovers.In fact, my family sometimes prefers this version to the restaurant one; especially when they get to the end of the pot and only get one or two gnocchi in their bowl.
To speed the preparation, I used leftover grilled chicken and frozen gnocchi, but any type of chicken would work just as well. If you'd like, you can make homemade gnocchi, but I opted to save some time.
What are they saying?
Not only has this soup become one of our favorite recipes, it's one of the most popular searched for and made recipes here at Carrie's Experimental Kitchen. Here are a few comments:
- "I used a store bought rotisserie turkey breast instead of chicken and also chopped up my baby spinach and turned out sooooo good!! Great on a really COLD night!!!"
- "This was so good and tastes just like Olive Garden’s. My entire family loved it and they are so picky! Thank you so much for sharing!"
- "Excellent recipe! Made a double batch and my family and my youngest who is two loved it!! Will definitely make again!"
- "I love to make soup in the winter and am so glad I came across this recipe. This is bar far the best soup I’ve ever made. I wasn’t sure if my 12 year old son would like it (he’s not picky, but not a fan of soup) and he devoured it. Thanks so much for sharing!
- "I’m currently living in Ireland and finding normal American ingredients that I’m use to cooking with, is surprisingly hard. I stumbled upon this recipe and OH MY GOD it’s delicious! It was so simple, easy to make and it tastes just like Olive Garden. The nutmeg really makes a difference. Thank you so much for sharing this recipe. I will definitely be making it again soon!"
~Enjoy!
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Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup (Copycat)
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. Butter
- ½ c. Celery, washed and thinly sliced
- ¼ c. Grated Onion
- ⅓ c. Grated Carrots
- 1 tbsp. Garlic, minced
- ¼ c. All Purpose Flour
- 8 c. Chicken Broth
- ⅛ tsp. Ground Nutmeg
- ½ tsp. Ground Thyme
- 4 c. Fresh Baby Spinach, rinsed
- 2 c. Cooked Chicken, small dice, roasted or grilled
- 2 c. Heavy Cream
- 16 oz. Gnocchi, frozen or fresh
Instructions
- In a large pot, melt the butter over medium heat; then add the celery, onions, carrots and garlic. Stir for 1-2 minutes until the celery starts to soften.
- Whisk in the flour; then add the chicken broth.
- Next, add the chicken, nutmeg and thyme; stir well. Increase heat and bring to a boil; then reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes.
- Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan; then add it to the soup along with the spinach and gnocchi.
- Simmer for an additional 15-20 minutes or until gnocchi is cooked.
Notes
Nutrition
Shawna says
Made this recipe pretty much as written with a tad extra veggies and chicken I small diced then sprinkled with a bit of salt pepper and garlic powder, and sautéed in butter. The flavor and consistency is spot on to Olive Garden’s. The texture stood out to me as well it was wonderfully creamy but not too thick. My parter told me it was the best soup he’s ever had. Thank you so much for sharing, we’ve found a new favorite!
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe, it's certainly one of our favorites as well!
Mary says
It was delicious. Have you ever tried it with reduced fat cream?
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
Yes, I've used half and half and just milk, though it was a little thinner so I had to add some extra thickener (cornstarch/water or flour/water). I'm glad you liked the recipe.
Kasey says
Great recipe. I Had left over spiral ham from Thanksgiving and decided to try this recipe using the leftovers. I substituted the chicken with small diced Ham, and Coconut Milk for heavy cream and it was amazingly good!
Judi says
Thank you so much for your quick reply!!!
Judi says
I made this for dinner tonight....delicious! I want to freeze the leftovers but my gnocchis are already in the soup. Can I still freeze it?
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
You sure can. The liquid may be absorbed some in the gnocchi, but you can add some chicken broth to help thin it out once it's defrosted if you'd like.
Merr says
just made this recipe for my family and wow!!! we're in quarantine right now so I replaced carrots and celery with broccoli and mushrooms and it was awesome! 10/10 will make again!
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe!
Jen says
We basically go to Olive Garden specifically for this soup so when I saw this recipe I rushed to make it. I made this for the kids Monday and it was so good they begged me to make it again. I made a double batch tonight and it’s just as good. It tastes exactly like Olive Garden’s! I just sautéed some boneless chicken breast, seasoned only with salt & pepper (I’m Puerto Rican, so seasoning without adobo & Sazon is almost unheard of in my family lol) and it was perfect. Thanks for the amazing recipe! I’ll be making this for a VERY long time.
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
I'm so glad you liked it Jen!! Thanks so much for trying my recipe! 🙂
Anais says
This is pretty much the best soup I've ever made. I added Italian sausage and omitted the veggies, but it's the recipe here that is so great. Seriously. Very good. Thank you for sharing.
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
I'm so glad you enjoyed the recipe Anais and I bet the addition of sausage made it taste even better!
Lauren says
This was so delicious!!! It was a huge hit with my husband and kids! Thank you for sharing!
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
You're very welcome and I'm so glad you all enjoyed it Lauren!
Adrian says
Where is the original recipient with bullion cubes? That's how I've been making it since I found the recipe. Now it says to use chicken stock. I only have bullion cubes available at the moment.
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
You can use bouillon cubes as well. It's one cube per every cup of water. So 8 bouillon cubes + 8 cups of water OR 8 cups of chicken stock. I'll add it back to the recipe card. Sorry for the confusion.
Angelique says
Just made this and it is soooooo good! Thank you!
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen says
You're welcome, I'm glad you enjoyed it! I'm about to make some this week too as my daughters' birthday dinner request. 🙂