I want to start out by saying I am a HUGE fan of Olive Garden, I love their food and their Peach Belini’s. I came across their Chicken Gnocchi soup one day while enjoying their endless soup salad and bread sticks and I just absolutely loved this soup. The only thing I didn’t care for about it was the gnocchi which if you don’t know what gnocchi is, its an Italian dumpling made of potato, semolina, or flour, usually boiled and served with soup or a sauce, I describe it as a doughy ball, which is why I don’t particularly care for it. I like most people cant afford to go to olive garden very often so I decided I was going to try to remake this soup, so with a little bit of research I found a site that had exactly what I was looking for and turns out it was even better than Olive Gardens soup! I have been making this soup for over 2 yrs now so I have made adjustments and made it my own and so many people love it that I wanted to share it with everyone!
I am not going to sit and compare this soup to Olive Gardens Chicken Gnocchi soup at this point because to me they are two totally different soups. This soup is a creamy soup that takes some prep work but is super easy to make. I love cooking but tend to get lazy when it comes to shredding carrots and chopping things up by hand so I do things like buy shredded carrots and use an electric chopper to make it easier! You can make this soup into your own by adding whatever amount of veggies, chicken and gnocchi or what I now use ,Tortellini ,as you please. I as you read do NOT use gnocchi in my soup anymore I came to use Buitoni mixed cheese tortellini so I renamed this soup “Creamy Chicken Tortellini soup”.
What you will need:
© 2/3 C of butter or Olive Oil (I prefer butter because I LOVE butter it ads more flavor I use 11tbsp butter to be exact)
© 4cloves minced garlic
© 1/3 cup FINELY chopped onion.
© 1 small can of whole kernel corn
© 2lb Chicken (I normally use boneless skinless chicken breast but you can use any chicken you'd like however if you use bone in chicken I would use more than 2lbs and boil it)
© 2/3c flour
© 1carrot shredded (I like more than that I use a whole 10oz. bag of shredded carrots which I think is about 2 carrots?)
© 2 sticks of celery sliced as small or as big as you like.
© Chopped spinach ( I use a little less than a whole 10oz bag, it reduces down but again you can use as much as you like)
© 5c whole milk
© 3c heavy cream
© 6 tsp chicken bouillon
© Season to taste ( I use salt pepper and Emeril Essence)
© 1 pack tortellini or gnocchi (again the amount is according to your preference)
First thing you want to do is cook your chicken if you do boneless skinless chicken you cut it into small pieces if you choose to use bone in chicken you want to put it in a sauce pot and cover with water and boil for about 15 to 20 Mins until it is done and let it sit in the water to cool down and then pick your meat off. Then you want to melt your butter or olive oil and add your onion garlic and if you use boneless chicken add that now and cook til its no longer pink and turns white all over. Once the chicken is cooked you ad your flour until it is cooked in, then ad your cream, milk, and all your veggies slowly ad the spinach though it looks like its going to be too much but it wilts down allot, then you ad chicken bouillon and season cook on medium heat until it thickens a little then turn down the heat, cover and simmer. I normally simmer it for quite a bit so the veggies get cooked enough and aren't crunchy and when the soup is to where you like it add your gnocchi or tortellini and simmer for about 4to5 Mins longer.
Garlic Bread for dipping in soup
When the soup is about done I take a loaf of french bread and slice it spread with butter and sprinkle with Emeril Essence and Parmesan cheese and broil til done.
Hope you all LOVE this recipe as much as I do…..
