Easy Crockpot Chicken Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)
on Oct 21, 2019, Updated Jan 02, 2025
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This delicious crockpot chicken gnocchi soup has it all – it’s creamy and comforting, it’s on the lighter side, and you need just 20 minutes to prepare it. Whether you know and love Olive Garden’s creamy chicken and gnocchi soup or not, you’ve got to try this easy copycat version!
Prefer to make the soup in your pressure cooker? I’ve got you covered there too!
Table of Contents
Why you’re going to love it
Looks good, right? So let’s just dive right in (with a big spoon) and find out why this dreamy, creamy easy chicken and gnocchi soup might just be your new favourite crockpot chicken soup recipe…
- A pretty good Olive Garden copycat! I can’t promise it will be EXACTLY the same, but it’s close. If you haven’t tried it, make it anyway and find out what all the Olive Garden soup fuss is all about.
- A lightened up creamy soup. Thanks to the evaporated milk you use (rather than cream).
- Just 7 main ingredients. So easy.
- Only 20 minutes hands-on time. So why not chop up your vegetables the night before and then throw them in the pot with chicken and stock/broth in the morning for an effort free and delicious dinner?
- A balanced but satisfying meal. It’s packed with vegetables: carrots, celery, onion, spinach. It’s got protein (hello delicious shredded chicken). And let’s not forget those cute little potato dumplings!
And if you love this soup, you’ll enjoy this crock pot zuppa toscana too (another Olive Garden copycat recipe!).
What’s gnocchi, anyway?
Made from mashed potato, flour, egg and sometimes cheese, gnocchi is like a kind of Italian dumpling. In fact, in Italian, gnocchi means ‘lumps’. Usually it’s boiled, but you can also bake it or pan-fry it. If you love gnocchi, try this 30-minute sheet pan gnocchi and sausage recipe, this baked gnocchi with broccoli, or this pan fried gnocchi with cherry tomatoes as well as this gnocchi soup!
What ingredients you need
I really wanted to keep the ingredients down to a minimum so that it’s a really easy win of a meal. But I wanted to make sure that it still has plenty of flavor.
Here are the 7 main ingredients:
- 4 kinds of vegetables: carrots, onions, celery and spinach. You can use frozen spinach if you prefer. Just defrost the spinach, then squeeze out any excess water before stirring into the soup.
- garlic and Italian herbs (for some good but simple flavour)
- chicken breasts (chicken thighs work, too)
- chicken broth / stock (Try to stick to really good quality)
- evaporated milk (so it’s creamy but lightened-up!) Cream works, too, if you prefer.
- cornstarch mixed with a bit of water for thickening the soup
- gnocchi (of course!) – I prefer to use a good quality store-bought gnocchi for this recipe, as it holds up better in the hot soup.
Top Tip
As there are only a few ingredients, I try to use the best quality ingredients I can find. I particularly like to buy good quality chicken and stock/broth (if I have some homemade, all the better!).
How to make chicken gnocchi soup in your crockpot
Photo 1: Chop the vegetables (carrots, celery, onion, garlic – everything apart from the spinach) and get all the other ingredients ready to go. So measure out the stock/broth, wash the spinach, get the herbs out of the pantry…
Throw the chopped vegetables, garlic, chicken and stock/broth into the slow cooker. Cook for about 6 hours on low.
Photo 2: After the cooking time is up, grab two forks and shred the chicken in the pot.
Photo 3: Now it’s time for the lightened-up creamy magic to happen! About half an hour before you want to eat, stir in a can of evaporated milk, some corn flour/cornstarch mixed with water (for thickening!) and the gnocchi. Replace the lid of the crockpot, turn it to high and let it bubble away for a few more minutes to cook the gnocchi and let the cornstarch do its thing.
Photo 4: Stir in a bag of spinach and let it wilt into the soup.
Photos 5 and 6: Season to taste and serve!
More things to know (recipe FAQ)
After much testing of this recipe over the years, I finally decided that 3 tablespoons of cornflour gives you the perfect thickness.
If you’d prefer your soup to be more like a hearty chowder or casserole, just add a tablespoon or two more of cornflour.
If you’d prefer a much thinner soup, simply reduce the cornflour to just 2 tablespoons.
The soup is lovely heated up the next day, but I sometimes find some of the liquid is soaked up by the gnocchi in the fridge. Simply add a bit of water to thin it out again to your liking.
Mostly, we just eat it as it is (it’s a wonderful one pot meal!), but if you want to serve some toasted bread with it go ahead! This 2-minute toasted bread with olive oil and salt is my favourite. If you have an air fryer, go with air fryer garlic bread. If you have a little more time, try this delicious no-knead Greek bread.
No, I wouldn’t recommend it. A slow cooker might not bring the chicken to a safe temperature quickly enough. Instead, thaw the chicken completely before cooking this soup. I find the easiest way is to let it thaw overnight in your refrigerator (if you can remember to get it out of the freezer!).
Yes! Cook for 10 minutes on high pressure, then let the pressure release naturally for 5 minutes (on my pressure cooker I use the ‘auto quick release’ setting which takes about 5 minutes).
Although the recipe states to cook on low for 6 hours, your gnocchi soup will be fine left cooking all day. Out at work for 8, 9 or even 11 hours? No worries!
Once you’ve added the cornflour, gnocchi and spinach and the soup has bubbled and thickened, it’s also fine to leave the soup on the ‘keep warm’ setting for a while until you’re ready to eat.
Absolutely. Reheat either in a saucepan or in the microwave at 50% power (so the chicken doesn’t get tough!). See how it looks when it’s reheated, but feel free to add a drizzle of milk or water if it’s looking too thick.
You can freeze for up to 3 months. Simply let defrost, then reheat as above.
How to make your soup taste better than Olive Garden’s!
I say this with my tongue in my cheek. But I truly don’t think you need a ton of fancy ingredients to get a meal that tastes just as good.
In my very humble opinion, all you need to do is use the VERY BEST QUALITY ingredients you can find and/or afford.
In other words:
- local fresh and in-season vegetables.
- fresh supermarket chicken stock / broth or homemade stock. How do you make homemade chicken stock? Sometimes, instead of throwing away a roast chicken carcass, I just simmer for 4 hours on the stove top or cook it on low for at least 8 hours in my slow cooker with: half an onion, some (unpeeled) garlic cloves, a carrot, a bay leaf, water (until everything is just covered), salt and pepper and some fresh or dried herbs. I then let it cool, strain and freeze for the next time I want to make this chicken soup (or these amazing Greek potatoes)!
More comforting chicken dinners
Easy Crockpot Chicken Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1.5 pounds chicken breasts, skinless boneless (3 medium to large)
- 1 onion, large, chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced
- 4 sticks celery, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed or chopped
- 4.5 cups chicken stock, (US=chicken broth)
- 1 tablespoon mixed Italian herbs, e.g. basil, thyme, oregano (or Italian seasoning)
- 14 ounces evaporated milk, (1 can)
- 3 tablespoons corn flour, dissolved in a little water (US=cornstarch)
- 16 ounces gnocchi
- 7 ounces spinach, (baby spinach)
- salt and pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Place the chicken, onion, carrots, celery, garlic, stock and herbs in the crockpot and cook on low for six hours minimum (or high for four). If you prefer to use an electric pressure cooker/Instant Pot, cook for 10 minutes on high pressure (70kpa), then quick pressure release (either instant or auto quick which takes 5-10 minutes in my pressure cooker).
- At the end of the cooking time, shred the chicken in the pot with two forks.
- Stir in the evaporated milk, cornstarch/water, and gnocchi (no need to cook it first). Bubble on 'high' until the soup has thickened a little and the gnocchi is cooked (a few minutes). If cooking in a pressure cooker, use the saute function instead.
- Wilt the spinach into the pot, grind in plenty of salt and pepper to taste, then serve.
