Olive Garden CopyKat Chicken Gnocchi Soup

If you’re anything like me, you crave that creamy, smooth Chicken Gnocchi soup from Olive Garden that comes endless with your entree. If you’re also anything like me, you cannot justify going out as often as you’d like just for a bowl (or five) of said soup. That lead me to try a base recipe that would hopefully recreate this masterpiece in my own kitchen. I decided to try copykat.com’s version with a couple tiny changes as to stay true to the original recipe.

Ingredients the recipe called for:

• 4 tbsp butter
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 cup finely diced onion
• 1/2 cup finely diced celery
• 2 mined garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 quart of half & half
• 28 ounces of chicken broth
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
• 1 cup finely shredded carrots
• 1 cup spinach, coarsely chopped
• 1 cup chicken breast, cooked/chopped
• 16 oz ready-to-use gnocchi

Things I changed:

• I used avocado oil instead of extra virgin olive oil
• I used pre-diced onions from the fresh vegetable isle
• I omitted the celery
• I used minced garlic from a jar, refrigerated
• I used two 14.5oz cans of chicken broth
• I did not add the optional nutmeg
• I used a bag of shredded carrots from the fresh vegetable isle
• I tore the spinach with my hands instead of chopping (it was fun)
• I used rotisserie chicken pre-shredded from the deli
• I added in 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper

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Instructions:

1. Melt the butter into the oil in a large saucepan, medium heat. Add the onion, celery and garlic. Cook until the onion becomes translucent.
2. Whisk in your flour and allow to cook for one minute. Whisk in your half & half next and allow to simmer until thickened.
3. Whisk in your chicken broth, simmering until thickened again. Stir in 1/2 tsp salt, thyme, parsley, nutmeg (if you’re opting to use it), carrots, spinach, chicken and gnocchi.
4. Simmer until heated through, add additional salt if necessary before serving

The Review + My Thoughts:

Given the small tweaks I made, I would give this soup recipe a 3 out of 5 stars.

• My first, and biggest, suggestion is to be picky with what gnocchi you use. We used Sam’s Choice from Walmart and while two out of three household members loved it… I did not and found the taste to be quite off-putting. I opted to remove the gnocchi from my bowl, which still receives the 3/5 rating.
• It felt like it was missing something with every bite and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. I wonder if the nutmeg would be the missing ‘ahhh’ moment flavor when comparing it to the restaurant version.
• I definitely feel like the carrots need to be sauteed with the onions in the very first step.
• It was lacking a lot of salt by the end as the 1/2 tsp was not enough, this of course is to taste person to person. You may like the salt level at the end so be sure to taste as you go!
• Cream? I think this would be good with full cream instead of half & half.
• Less thyme – I will try 1/4 tsp next time as 1/2 tsp was a lot for our palates.
• Season. your. chicken – our very seasoned rotisserie chicken helped save the soup’s lack of flavor. I read some comments on the original recipe saying chicken bouillon also helped amp up the flavor.

I cannot wait to try this again in the future and see what additional changes can do for this crave-worthy Olive Garden soup! If you have any tips or tricks, feel free to share in the comments.