Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup
This creamy chicken gnocchi soup cooks in one pot. The chicken simmers in the broth, then gets shredded and goes back in with soft potato gnocchi, half-and-half and baby spinach.
Servings: 6 servings
Calories: 460kcal
Equipment
- Large Dutch oven or heavy soup pot (6-quart)
- Whisk
- Instant-read thermometer
- 2 forks
Ingredients
Soup base
- 3 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 medium yellow onion diced
- 2 medium carrots peeled and diced
- 2 stalks celery diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 teaspoon dried thyme
- ⅓ cup all-purpose flour
- 5 cups low-sodium chicken broth
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt plus more to taste
- ½ teaspoon black pepper
Chicken
- 1 ½ pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts about 2 large
To finish
- 1 ½ cups half-and-half
- 1 package shelf-stable potato gnocchi 16 ounces
- 2 cups baby spinach packed, roughly chopped
- grated Parmesan cheese for serving, optional
Instructions
- Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onion, carrots, celery and a pinch of salt. Cook for 6–8 minutes, stirring often, until the onion is soft and translucent.
- Add the garlic and thyme and cook for 1 minute, until fragrant.
- Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir constantly for 1–2 minutes to cook out the raw flour taste.
- Slowly pour in the broth, whisking as you go so no lumps form. Add 1 teaspoon salt and the pepper. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
- Add the chicken breasts whole and push them under the liquid. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer gently for 15–20 minutes, until the thickest part of the chicken reads 165°F (74°C) on an instant-read thermometer.
- Move the chicken to a cutting board and shred it with 2 forks.
- Stir the half-and-half into the pot and bring the soup back to a gentle simmer. Do not let it boil hard. Add the gnocchi and simmer for 4–5 minutes, stirring now and then, until the gnocchi are plump and tender.
- Stir in the shredded chicken and spinach and cook for 1–2 minutes, until the spinach wilts. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve with Parmesan.
Notes
- Rotisserie chicken shortcut: skip steps 5 and 6 and stir in 3–4 cups shredded rotisserie chicken in step 8. This saves about 20 minutes.
- Shelf-stable gnocchi are in the pasta aisle. Refrigerated gnocchi work the same way. Add frozen gnocchi straight from the freezer and give them 1–2 extra minutes.
- The soup thickens as it sits. Thin it with a splash of broth before serving if needed.
- Nutrition is an estimate per serving from USDA values.