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This chicken gnocchi soup recipe is almost guaranteed to “gnoc” your socks off! It’s ready in 20 minutes and packed with juicy shredded chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and tender gnocchi pillows in a creamy broth.
Lovers of Olive Garden’s zuppa Toscana, this creamy gnocchi soup is right up your alley! My advice? Serve this soup tonight with crispy air fryer garlic bread for sopping up every last drop.
I make marry me chicken fairly regularly, so when I combined similar ingredients into a quick, 20-minute soup recipe, I was sold. This creamy chicken gnocchi soup is easy to make and is even BETTER than the Olive Garden! It’s loaded with juicy shredded chicken, fluffy potato gnocchi, sweet-tangy sun-dried tomatoes, and plenty of aromatics. It’s fast and delicious as-is, but easy to customize to make it dairy-free, vegetarian, etc. I can’t wait for you to try it!
About This Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe
- Quick to make. Unlike pasta, potato gnocchi cooks quickly, usually about 30 seconds to a couple of minutes. I can have this soup ready to eat in 20 minutes or less, including the time it takes to sauté the vegetables.
- Creamy, Tuscan-style flavors. Like my creamy Tuscan shrimp, this soup is inspired by Tuscan ingredients with sun-dried tomatoes, spinach, and garlic.
- Adaptable. As with most homemade soups, this chicken gnocchi soup recipe is very flexible in terms of flavors and ingredients. You can throw in crushed red pepper flakes to make it spicy, use noodles instead of gnocchi, and swap the chicken for white beans to make it meat-free. So many possibilities!
Ingredients You’ll Need to Make This Soup
The ingredients in this soup marry together in a short time, so quality counts! Below are some notes. Scroll down to the printable recipe card for the full list, amounts, and step-by-step instructions.
- Butter – For sautéeing. Butter can be substituted with olive oil or the cooking oil of your choice.
- Finely Diced Onion, Carrots, and Celery – This combination is known as a “mire poix” in French cooking, similar to Italian sofrito. It creates an aromatic flavor base for soups and sauces, from chicken soup to Bolognese.
- Sun-dried Tomatoes – You can buy these jarred and chop them up.
- Garlic – Use the side of a large knife to crush the fresh cloves against your cutting board. If you don’t have fresh garlic, pre-minced will work, too. Substitute 1 tablespoon of minced garlic for each clove.
- Chicken Broth – You could also use vegetable broth or stock. I recommend a low-sodium version so it’s easier to adapt the salt to taste.
- Thyme – Fresh or dried. Other good herb choices include rosemary, sage, and oregano.
- Mustard Powder – You won’t often find mustard powder in similar soup recipes, but it’s my secret ingredient. It adds so much flavor to the broth!
- Gnocchi – You’ll usually find gnocchi in the pasta section at the grocery store. However, it’s actually an Italian dumpling, made from potatoes, flour, and eggs. They look like small rolls or “pillows” of dough. If you prefer homemade, embrace your inner Nonna and make your gnocchi from scratch.
- Cooked Chicken – Chop the chicken breast or shred it using two forks. Any cut of chicken you have on hand will work.
- Heavy Cream and Half-and-Half – Half-and-half is half milk, half cream. You can buy it in the store under that name. I like to use it in addition to heavy cream in the recipe. Feel free to swap one out with the other if you’d like. Or, substitute either the cream or half-and-half with cream cheese for an extra rich broth.
- Baby Spinach – You could also use regular spinach, Swiss chard, or kale.
What Chicken Should I Use?
The best thing about recipes like chicken noodle soup and crack chicken soup is that they’re a wonderful way to use up leftover cooked chicken. This recipe, too, calls for any pre-cooked, shreddable chicken thighs or breasts you have in the fridge. Boneless chicken is easiest to shred, but bone-in chicken works, too, if you remove the bones.
If you don’t have it leftover, you can pick up a rotisserie chicken from the store (or make this air fryer rotisserie chicken). Or, cook a batch of chicken breasts in the air fryer or boil them to shred.
Recipe Tips
- Don’t overcook the spinach. Cook the spinach until just wilted to keep its flavor. If you have plain spinach, chop it roughly before adding it to the soup.
- Make it dairy-free. Sauté with olive oil instead of butter, and thicken the soup with a cornstarch slurry or your favorite plant-based milk.
- Make it vegetarian. Use vegetable broth and leave out the chicken or replace it with white beans, chickpeas, or butter beans for a meatless version.
- Use noodles. Sometimes, if I don’t have potato gnocchi, I’ll substitute it with regular egg noodles, as I’d use for creamy chicken noodle soup. Other good options are elbow macaroni, ditalini, orzo, or any short pasta. You could also use rice. Keep in mind that the cooking times will vary depending on what you use.
- Use sausage instead. This soup turns out great with cooked Italian sausage if you’d prefer not to use chicken. I’d recommend sautéeing the uncooked sausage alongside the vegetables in this case.
What to Serve With This Gnocchi Soup
For a quick dinner, I love this creamy soup paired with garlic bread, dinner rolls, or hunks of crusty bread for dunking. For a side or starter, this easy caponata is great.
My favorite lunch combination is a soup and salad combo, so I’ll serve my gnocchi soup with a green Mediterranean salad on the side or this copycat La Scala chopped salad with a fresh, zingy dressing.
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Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- ½ cup carrots, finely chopped
- 2 stalks celery, finely chopped
- 2 sun-dried tomatoes in a jar, chopped
- ¾ teaspoon salt, or to taste
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or to taste
- 2 cloves garlic, crushed
- 4 to 6 cups chicken broth
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- ¼ teaspoon mustard powder
- 16 ounces potato gnocchi
- 2 to 3 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken
- 1 cup heavy cream
- 1 cup half and half
- 1 cup baby spinach
Instructions
- Make the flavor base. Melt butter in a Dutch oven or soup pot over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots, celery, and sun-dried tomatoes, and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring for 3-4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook, stirring for 30 seconds.
- Deglaze. Pour in the chicken broth and, using a wooden spoon, scrape any browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Add the thyme and mustard powder, and bring the broth to a boil.
- Add the main ingredients. Gently add the gnocchi and chicken to the boiling broth. Give it a good stir so the gnocchi do not stick to each other. Reduce the heat and simmer until the gnocchi start to float on top, or cook them according to package directions.
- Make it creamy. Stir in the heavy cream, half and half, and baby spinach. Simmer the soup for 2 minutes or until the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and taste the soup for salt and pepper; adjust to taste.
- Serve. Serve this chicken gnocchi soup while still warm, sprinkled with some extra cracked black pepper.
Equipment
Nutrition
Nutritional info is an estimate and provided as courtesy. Values may vary according to the ingredients and tools used. Please use your preferred nutritional calculator for more detailed info.
How to Make Chicken Gnocchi Soup in 4 Steps
- Prepare the flavor base. First, melt butter in a saucepan and add the carrots, onion, celery, and sun-dried tomatoes. Let that sauté over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes before adding the garlic.
- Deglaze. Next, pour the chicken broth into the pot and use a (non-metal) spoon or spatula to lift any browned bits from the bottom. Stir in the thyme and mustard powder and bring the pot to a boil.
- Add the chicken and gnocchi. Now, add the gnocchi to the pot along with the cooked shredded chicken, and stir gently. Lower the heat and simmer the soup just until the gnocchi begin to float to the top of the broth. This means they’re cooked! Otherwise, refer to the cooking directions on the package.
- Make it creamy. Last but not least, stir in the heavy cream and half-and-half, then the spinach. Once the spinach has wilted, season the soup to taste and serve.
Storing and Reheating Leftovers
- Refrigerate. Keep this creamy chicken gnocchi soup in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. The gnocchi does tend to get softer with time, so I always try to enjoy the leftovers sooner rather than later. Because of the dairy in the recipe, I don’t recommend freezing this soup.
- Reheat. Warm the soup gently on the stovetop or in the microwave. Take care not to let it boil on the reheat, or the cream in the broth may split.
