Chicken and Gnocchi Soup

I dont know about you, but every time I go to Olive Garden I have about a 60 second struggle to decide whether to get the soup or salad with my meal. I love their salad…but I also love the way the Chicken Gnocchi soup warms up my insides. So… I end up ordering the soup then eat some of my husbands salad. 🙂

ANYWAY! I tried a copy cat recipe I found online about 4 years ago and I really didn’t like it. It was probably my fault, but it was too thick and the Olive Garden version isn’t thick at all. So I was a little turned off for awhile. Well, I got the itch again to try a recipe and I decided to come up with my own. I hope you all love it, my husband and I thought it was a total keeper!

This recipe can easily be made gluten free by using a slurry of equal parts cornstarch to water instead of the flour. About 3TB each. You would also need to insure that the chicken broth you use is GF.

Drumroll….here is how I made it.

Melt butter then add in the mirepoix after mirepoix is soft, add in garlic and stir. Then add in your flour (or slurry) and all the seasonings, cook until flour is golden.

Then SLOWLY Add in about 1 cup of the  Chicken broth and stir until flour is dissolved. You don’t want the flour to clump up in the soup. Pouring in a little bit of the liquid at the beginning will help! Then add remaining broth and water; bring to a boil.

Add chicken and gnocchi cook for 2 minutes at a low boil, then bring soup down to a simmer.

Microwave milk and ½ and ½ to warm it up. Warming the milk and ½ and ½ before dumping in into the pot that was just boiling will keep it from curdling. Never mix any kind of milk/cream into a hot pot or you will have cottage cheese! With my microwave I heated it for about 1.5 minutes, but adjust depending on your microwave. Slowly add warm milk/cream to soup while stirring. Keep on a simmer.

Lastly, add the chopped kale and parmesan. Stir to incorporate and simmer about 5 min longer. Optional: Add warm milk to thin soup (You don’t want it too thick or too thin.) and more salt/pepper to taste if needed. Serve with crusty warm bread.

Recipe

Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Serves: 8         Prep Time: 15 min       Cook Time: 20

(Better Than Olive Garden Copy Cat)

Ingredients

4 TB Butter

1 sm Onion- diced

1 cup Carrot- shredded or finely diced.

1 cup Celery- about 2 stalks, finely diced

3-4 cloves garlic- minced (about 1 1/2 TB)

1/4 c. Flour

1 TB Parsley

1/4 tsp Dried Oregano

1/4 tsp Dried Thyme

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cracked pepper

4 cups Chicken Broth

1 c. Water

1 lb Chicken Breast- diced (cooked the night before in oven with salt/pepper and a little Italian seasoning)

16 oz. Potato Gnocchi

1 1/2 c. Milk (I used 1%)

1/2 c. Half and Half

2 Leaves Kale- cut into small pieces

1/4 c. Shredded Parmesan

Instructions

1. Melt butter on medium heat; add in mirepoix (onion, carrots, celery). Cook until soft and onions are translucent. Add in garlic and stir; cook 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
2. Add flour and seasonings to the softened mirepoix mixture and stir constantly until flour is incorporated and turning a golden color.
3. SLOWLY Add in about 1 cup of Chicken broth and stir until flour is dissolved. Then add remaining broth and water; bring to a boil.
4. Add chicken and gnocchi cook for 2 minutes then bring soup down to a simmer.
5. Microwave milk and ½ and ½ to warm it up. About 1.5 minutes depending on your microwave. (You warm it so it doesn’t curdle when adding to soup)
6. Slowly add warm milk/cream to soup while stirring. Keep on a simmer.
7. Add chopped kale and parmesan. Stir to incorporate and simmer about 5 min longer. Optional: Add warm milk to thin soup (You don’t want it too thick or too thin.) and more salt/pepper to taste if needed. Serve with crusty warm bread.

Refrigerate leftovers. Leftovers are best when warmed on the stove, may need to add a little milk to thin.

Bread: A Fresh French loaf from the bakery section is best, cut on a bias, butter and lightly sprinkle garlic powder, toast under broiler.

If serving for crowds where you will keep in a crockpot add a little more milk or chicken broth to keep it thin. Keeping it on warm in a crock pot for too long will thicken it.

Enjoy!