This Chicken and Kale Gnocchi Soup was out of this world good. This recipe is inspired by Olive Garden’s Chicken Gnocchi Soup. I added kale because I had some on hand, the kale added great flavor to the soup. Soups in the slow cooker are must in the winter. Since I work all-day, I love to come home to a bowl of comforting soup. My other favorite soups on my blog are Baked Potato, Hearty Italian Beef, and Chicken Tortilla. I make at least one soup a week in my slow cooker.
This recipe has a few more steps than most of my other recipes. The extra steps are sautéing the veggies and boiling the gnocchi and kale separate on the stove-top, these steps are worth the time and effort to create a restaurant style soup.
I hope you enjoy my recipe for Chicken and Kale Gnocchi Soup. Enjoy!
- 1.5 lbs. boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 7 cups chicken broth
- 4 Tbsp. butter
- 4 Tbsp. flour
- ½ cup diced onion
- ½ cup diced celery
- 1 cup diced carrots
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 1 tsp. dried basil
- 1 tsp. dried oregano
- ¼ tsp. salt
- ¼ tsp. pepper
- 1 (16-oz.) package gnocchi (found on the pasta aisle, refrigerated section, or freezer section)
- 2 cups chopped kale
- 1½ cups half and half
- Add the chicken to a 6-quart slow cooker, set aside.
- In a medium sized skillet set over medium-high heat on the stove-top, melt the butter. Add the onion, celery, carrots, garlic, basil, oregano, salt and pepper. Cook for 3-5 minutes until they are slightly softened. Add the flour and cook for 30 more seconds, add a few cups of the chicken broth and stir until the flour dissolves.
- Add everything from the skillet to the slow cooker with the chicken, add the remaining chicken broth, stir. Cover and cook on LOW for 8 hours, without opening the lid during the cooking time. After the cooking time is up, cook the gnocchi as directed on the package in boiling water on the stove-top, add the kale to this pot and cook at the same time as the gnocchi, the kale will take about 4 minutes to cook. Drain the gnocchi and kale, add to the slow cooker.
- Shred the chicken with 2 forks.
- Add the half and half.
- Stir.
- Serve and enjoy!
Mary Ellen says
January 7, 2015 at 4:13 pmThis looks like a delicious soup! I love gnocchi…
Shelby says
January 7, 2015 at 6:09 pmI have everything I need to make this (well, I have collard greens, they could probably sub for the kale..) and Grumpy and I have been on a major homemade soup kick. He even has asked me to make soup to put in a thermos for him to take to lunch during the week! Definitely am going to try it out!
Sandra Shaffer says
January 7, 2015 at 10:26 pmThis looks delicious, Sarah! Nice and filling and I love that you added the kale!
Tracey says
January 7, 2015 at 11:51 pmWow this sounds delicious, thanks. What is half & half – the last item on the ingredients list? And does it matter whether you use basil or thyme, or do you need both? – ingredient list says basil but instructions say Thyme. Cant wait to try this xx
Sarah Olson says
January 8, 2015 at 4:57 amHalf and Half is a mixture of cream and milk. I’m guessing that you don’t have that in the UK. So if you have both milk and cream, use half of each. It should be basil, I made it twice and decided basil was better than the thyme. I fixed it. Thank you for letting me know.
Renee's Kitchen Adventures says
January 8, 2015 at 6:31 amI’m always amazed at what you make in that slow cooker! This looks so good and just perfect for the cold weather we are having right now!
Sheena @ Hot Eats and Cool Reads says
January 8, 2015 at 12:19 pmThis soup looks perfect!! I love all the ingredients and your photos are awesome too!
Yvonne [Tried and Tasty] says
January 8, 2015 at 10:03 pmThat’s it. I officially need to give gnocchi a try – this looks too good to pass up!
Valerie | From Valerie's Kitchen says
January 10, 2015 at 9:26 amOh man, this looks SO delicious! Gnocchi is absolute comfort food for me and love the idea of adding it to soup. Love!
Frances says
January 14, 2015 at 6:03 pmTried this soup today and it was very very good. The half and half made it. My husband had 2 big bowls and he is not a big evening eater. This is a keeper for my soup repertoire.
Jen says
January 16, 2015 at 4:16 pmThis was a delicious way to get some kale into the kids! Everyone ate it up. P.S. I forgot to put the half and half in – it was still great! Next time, I might use 3/4 c evaporated nonfat milk + 3/4 c. half & half.
Frances says
February 12, 2015 at 10:55 amThis was an awesome soup!! Was so easy and turned out perfect. The finishing touch was definitely the half and half. Thank you for this one!!
Doug says
February 22, 2015 at 7:15 amThanks for the recipe! My wife and I love kale, and this really looks delicious.
Judy says
August 2, 2015 at 5:03 pmI am definitely going to try this asap. Thanks for the creative ideas/
Scott Williamss says
April 10, 2017 at 10:30 amThis soup has some intense flavor and was a delicious light lunch for me at work. Thanks for sharing thsi awesome recipe with me and hope to try others on your site.
Petter says
September 29, 2017 at 11:47 amLike your Chicken Gnocchi Soup. Thank yours for sharing.