Chicken Gnocchi Soup

The school week is over and there's a three day weekend coming my way! Friday nights have become a time to try out new recipes. Classes are out by noon most Fridays so that's when we go grocery shopping and get creative with dinner. Chicken gnocchi soup was something that both Spencer and I had been wanting to try after getting hooked at Olive Garden. This recipe is a modification of one by baking with blondie, and its seriously AMAZING!

Here's the list of ingredients:

• 1 Tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil 
• 4 Tablespoons of butter
• 1 cup of diced onion
• 1/2 cup of diced celery 
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 of flour
• 1 quart of half and half
• 28 oz of chicken stock
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon of dried parsley 
• 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
• 1 cup of finely chopped carrots
• 1 cup of chopped spinach leaves
• 1 cup of shredded chicken breast
• 16 oz of mini gnocchi 

Chicken prep:

1) Boil your chicken until its cooked thoroughly through (cooking times will vary with the size of the chicken). 2) Let it cool before shredding it up. I've found that using a combination of your hands and a fork is the easiest way to shred chicken. Doing it by hand just takes way too long.  

Soup prep:

Before starting the soup, make sure all the veggies are chopped and measured out first. The timing between steps makes it hard to chop in between! 1) Add olive oil to a large stock pot and set the heat to medium. 2) Add the butter and let it melt into the olive oil. 3) Add the onion, celery, and garlic to the pot and let it simmer on medium heat, stirring frequently until the onion is clear-ish and not white. 4) Whisk in the flour, letting it cook for 1 minute. 5) Whisk in the half-and-half slowly and let it simmer until it thickens. It took about 10 minutes for me, but times will vary. 6) Next, whisk in the chicken stock and let it simmer until it thickens again. Thickening will take longer this time because the chicken stock is thinner than the half and half. Expect it to take about 25 minutes. 7) Stir in the salt, thyme, parsley, nutmeg, carrots, spinach, chicken, and gnocchi. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for about a minute. The gnocchi doesn't take long to cook!

     

I couldn't ask for a better start to the weekend! Enjoy!