Almost Like Olive Garden Chicken & Gnoocchi Soup

Olive Garden Chicken & Gnoocchi Soup

Menu Description: “ A creamy soup made with roasted chicken and traditional Italian dumplings, and spinach.” Just like served at Olive Garden.  From the Book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur

It’s hard to find premade gnocchi that is as good as the stuff Olive Garden uses in their new hit soup. The gnocchi are perfectly tender and seasoned with a big of nutmeg. But making gnocchi at home from scratch doesn’t have to be hard. In this secret recipe for gnocchi made  Olive Garden way, I found it best to use instant mashed potatoes. This way I could not only save the time but also be certain that the gnocchi would turn out exactly the same with each batch. Once you make the gnocchi and form each chunk of dough into small disks, you can start on the soup. For the chicken, just grab a roasted chicken in your supermarket. Take off the skin, then remove the meat and chop it up before adding it to the soup. When the soup simmers until thick you will have eight 1 cup servings of a soup that taste exactly like the new Olive Garden top menu choice.

Gnocchi

1 cup potato Buds

¾ teaspoon plus 1/8 teaspoon salt

¼ scant teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup boiling water

1 egg yolk

2/3 cup all purpose flour2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Soup

½ cup shredded carrot

¼  cup diced onion

1/4  cup chopped celery

1 teaspoon minced garlic

2 tablespoons cornstarch

 4 cups chicken broth

4 cups water

1 ½ teaspoons salt 

½ teaspoon ground black pepper

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 ½ cups half and half

1 roasted chicken with meat removed and chopped

2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1.     Make the gnocchi by mixing the potato buds with the salt and nutmeg. Stir in the boiling water and continue mixing until no dry flakes remain. Stir in the egg yolk until the mashed potato mixture has an even pale yellow color throughout.

2.     Stir in the flour and knead for about a minute with your hands.

3.     Use a ½ teaspoon to measure out small portions of the dough. Using floured hands, roll the small dough portion around between the palms of your hands, making a ball, then press each ball down onto floured wax paper; making a small disk. When all the gnocchi is made, you can begin to make the soup.

4.     Heat up the oil in a large soup pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the carrot , onion, celery and garlic and sauté for 3 minutes. Whisk the cornstarch into the chicken broth and add to the vegetables along with the water. When the mixture begins to boil, add the gnocchi. Reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the half and half and simmer for another 10-15 minutes, or until the soup begins to thicken. Add the chicken and spinach and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the soup has thickened and the spinach is tender.

5.     Makes 8 cups

This recipe is from the Cookbook   Top Secret Restaurant Recipes by Todd Wilbur