My husband really likes the Chicken & Gnocchi soup at Olive Garden. So, he was pretty excited when I found this copycat recipe on Pinterest!

I’ve tweaked it a little bit. For example: no carrots because I’m lazy and I just don’t feel like shredding carrots, or buying a bag of shredded carrots that I won’t use up. Also, canned shredded chicken is easier – and makes my cats very happy. Too bad they don’t like shredded carrots as much as they like chicken juice.  🙂

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion
• 2 stalks of celery
• 2 garlic cloves
• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tbsp butter
• ¼ cup flour
• 1 quart half & half
• 2 cans of minced chicken
• 16 oz package of gnocchi
• 14 oz chicken broth
• 1 cup baby spinach, coarsely chopped
• ½ tsp dried thyme
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Mince the onions, slice the celery, and mince the garlic.
2. In a large stockpot, heat olive oil and sauté the onion, celery, and garlic until soft.
3. Melt the butter, and then add the flour to form a roux. Stir and cook 1 minute until it becomes like a paste. Slowly incorporate the half & half.
4. Add shredded chicken to the stockpot.
5. While the soup thickens, cook the gnocchi according to the package directions.
6. Add the chicken broth, gnocchi, spinach and seasonings. Cover and heat through.

Chicken & Gnocchi Soup

This soup is pretty simple, and it goes great with a nice crusty bread or breadsticks!

And, bonus ! I made another copycat recipe to go along with the soup: Macaroni Grill’s Shrimp & Avocado Crostini. 🙂

Shrimp & Avocado Crostini

This is probably my favorite appetizer of all time! So yummy! Here’s the recipe. It’s a bit time intensive, but so worth it!