Creamy Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
Creamy and delicious gnocchi soup made with savory chicken and seasoned with and onions, celery, carrots, spinach, and herbs.
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Table of Contents
About Creamy Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
With October only a stone’s throw away, I’m slowly starting to tune my culinary goals toward cold weather foods – something I sort of missed out on last year. Back when I first started this blog, I hardly paid any attention to the time of year or the season. I was just so excited to post and to (finally!) be taking the first steps toward cooking that I just went with whatever felt good that day. And while that certainly made the blog fun for me at the time, it ended up leaving quite a few holes what I like to call my “recipe arsenal” – or just my recipe archives, if you want to get all technical.
However, it was always my goal to feature a full variety of recipes on this blog, and I’ve spent the past few months trying to plug up the holes.
Slowly but surely, I’m getting there.
Which brings me to one of the biggest voids I have:
Soups.
This blog is seriously hurting in the soup department. I made some headway a few weeks back with Lasagna Soup, and there was also that post for Potato Soup that went up last spring, but that was all I had to offer – until today. Now that fall has officially arrived I’m really looking to feature more recipes like the delicious chicken and gnocchi soup you see below.
When it comes to soup, there are a few food power struggles in our house that I have to work with:
1. I’m not a big fan of meaty soups. I know, what in the world is wrong with me? I do better with ground beef, but even then I’ll find myself hunting for all the noodles and veggies by the time I near the bottom of the bowl.
2. An old friend of mine likes meat in all his foods, especially soups.
3. I like ultra thick and creamy soups. The watery soups are great when you’re not feeling well, but for the day-to-day I need a soup that’s going to tide me over for a few hours. When left to my own devices, I tend to simmer a soup so long that it’s practically a chowder. And it’s awesome.
4. An old friend of mine likes all soup, but according to our Costco purchases, the 24 pack chicken noodle soup says he leans toward the watery ones.
This Chicken and Gnocchi soup ended up being a great compromise between both his tastes and mine. An old friend of mine got to have a plethora of chicken in his soup, especially since I did my best to fish out all the chicken pieces I could find for him. And I got to have my ultra-creamy soup with almost nothing but soft, tender gnocchi and veggies.
See?
Compromise!
While we were eating, I looked over to him and asked him if he liked it. He gave me a quick and simple “yeah,” which typically translates into “SO GOOD CAN’T TALK EATING.” But after he took a few more bites, he looked thoughtful, then turned to me and said: “You know what would go great with this? Corned beef.”
I guess I’ll have to take his word on that, because I’ve never tried corned beef before…  but now my curiosity is piqued. Is corned beef any good?
Is it easy to make?
Come to think of it, my recipe arsenal is pretty low on beef recipes, too…  I might just have to research a few recipes and answer all those questions myself! And make this soup again when I do!
More great chicken recipes
Other tasty soups
Creamy Chicken and Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients
- 6 tablespoon salted butter
- 1 cup onion, finely chopped
- 1 cup celery, finely chopped
- 4 cup half and half cream
- 1 teaspoon thyme, fresh and chopped
- 1 teaspoon parsley, fresh and chopped (plus more for garnish)
- 1 cup carrots, shredded
- 1 cup spinach leaves, chopped
- 1 pound chicken breast, cooked and cut into bite sized cubes
- 16 ounce gnocchi, 1 package
Instructions
- Whisk in flour and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
- Add half and half to half to pot and whisk with flour and vegetables. Allow sauce to simmer until it begins to thicken, another 3-5 minutes.
- Pour chicken broth in the pot, whisking again until combined. Allow sauce to simmer again until desired thickness is reached. If you'd like a thinner soup, move on to the next step as soon as soon as the sauce seems thoroughly combined and has the consistency of heavy cream. If you'd like a thicker soup, continue to cook and stir for an additional 5-10 minutes.
- Add salt, thyme, parsley, carrots, spinach, chopped chicken, and gnocchi to soup. Allow soup to simmer until heated through and gnocchi are soft, another 2-5 minutes.
- Taste test soup for seasoning and add more salt if desired. Serve immediately with more fresh parsley for garnish.
Nutrition
I do my best to provide nutrition information, but please keep in mind that I'm not a certified nutritionist. Any nutritional information discussed or disclosed in this post should only be seen as my best amateur estimates of the correct values.
