Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Whenever I cook whole chickens, I like to think beyond that first meal and see just how far I can stretch them. Cooked chicken is such a handy ingredient to have ready to go because it can be turned into so many completely different dinners without feeling as though you’re serving the same thing night after night.
This Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi Soup was one of four family-sized meals I made after picking up two whole chickens on special for $22. I slow cooked the chickens first, removed the meat once they were cooked, and then used the carcasses to make a simple chicken stock overnight.
For this meal, some of that cooked chicken and homemade stock went into a creamy soup with gnocchi, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan and spinach. It’s hearty enough to be dinner on its own, and using chicken that is already cooked makes it particularly easy to put together.
It also ended up being a great example of why I love making stock from the bones rather than throwing them away. Something that could easily have gone to waste became the base for another complete family meal.
Watch the Video
This recipe is part of a new video where I challenged myself to see how many family meals, I could make from two whole chickens I bought on special for $22.
In the video, I start by putting the two chickens into the slow cooker. Once cooked, I explain how I removed all the chicken meat and then slow cooked the leftover carcasses overnight to make a simple homemade chicken stock.
From there, I use the chicken and stock to make four different family-sized dinners:
- Chicken & Vegetable Frittata
- Crispy Chicken Taco Bake
- Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi Soup
- Creamy Chicken & Broccoli Bake
You can watch the full video on my YouTube channel to see how I turned one good supermarket special into four very different family meals.
More Meals from the Two-Chicken Challenge
If you’ve cooked a couple of whole chickens or simply have leftover cooked chicken that needs using, have a look at the other meals from this video too:
Other Recipes You May Like
If you enjoy easy, comforting family dinners like this one, you might also like:
- Slow Cooker Apricot Chicken
- Slow Cooker Curried Sausages
- Thai Chicken Noodle Soup
- Creamy Tomato Soup
- Sweet Corn & Potato Chowder
Recipe Card
Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Serves: 6-8
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: Approximately 25 minutes
Total Time: Approximately 35 minutes
Ingredients
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 3–4 garlic cloves, minced
- 2 Tbsp of the sun-dried tomato oil
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 2 cups diced cooked chicken
- 6 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup diced sun-dried tomatoes
- ½ cup grated Parmesan cheese
- ½ cup frozen spinach
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Pinch of dried basil
- Pinch of Italian seasoning
- 1½ cups cream
- 500g packet gnocchi
Method
- Add the diced onions and oil to a large pot and cook over medium heat until they begin to soften.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another few minutes, stirring regularly.
- Pour in the chicken stock, then add the cooked chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan, dried basil and Italian seasoning.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for around 10 minutes to allow the flavours to come together.
- Add the gnocchi and cook according to the packet directions, or until the gnocchi is tender and cooked through.
- Stir through the frozen spinach and cream. Gently heat until the spinach is warmed through and the soup is hot. Avoid bringing it to a rapid boil once the cream has been added.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed, then serve hot.
What to Serve with Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Because the gnocchi make this a fairly substantial soup, you really don’t need much alongside it. If you’d like to stretch it a little further, try serving it with:
- Warm crusty bread or homemade bread rolls
- Garlic bread
- A simple green salad
- Steamed green vegetables
- Extra Parmesan sprinkled over the top
Stacey’s Kitchen Tips
- Use already-cooked chicken. This recipe is perfect for leftover roast or slow-cooked chicken, so there is no need to cook chicken especially for the soup.
- Don’t waste the carcass. If you’re starting with a whole chicken, save the bones and carcass for homemade chicken stock. It’s a great way to get another useful ingredient from something you already paid for.
- Watch the gnocchi. It doesn’t take long to cook, so check the packet instructions and avoid leaving it simmering for too long.
- Add the cream towards the end. Once it goes in, gently heat the soup rather than allowing it to boil vigorously.
- Taste before adding salt. Chicken stock, Parmesan and sun-dried tomatoes can all be quite salty, so you may find you need very little additional salt.
Variations & Substitutions
- Chicken: Leftover roast chicken, slow-cooked chicken or rotisserie chicken can all be used.
- Chicken stock: Homemade stock is lovely here, but store-bought chicken stock will work perfectly well too.
- Spinach: Fresh baby spinach can replace frozen spinach. Simply stir it through towards the end until wilted.
- Sun-dried tomatoes: Add a little more or less depending on how strongly you want their flavour to come through.
- Cream: For a slightly lighter soup, you could reduce the amount of cream and replace it with a little extra stock.
- Gnocchi: Potato gnocchi works beautifully, but use whichever variety is readily available to you.
- Heat: Add a pinch of chilli flakes if you’d like a little warmth.
Storage, Freezer & Make-Ahead Notes
Storage: Allow leftover soup to cool before transferring it to an airtight container. Store in the fridge for up to 3 days. The gnocchi will continue to absorb some of the liquid as it sits, so the soup may become thicker.
Reheating: Reheat gently in a saucepan over low to medium heat, stirring occasionally. If it has thickened considerably in the fridge, add a splash of chicken stock or water until it reaches the consistency you like.
Freezing: Creamy soups containing gnocchi aren’t my first choice for freezing once fully assembled. The gnocchi can become softer after freezing and thawing, while cream-based soups can sometimes change texture. If you want to prepare this ahead for the freezer, I would make the soup base without the cream, spinach and gnocchi, freeze that, and add those ingredients when reheating.
Make Ahead: The chicken can be cooked and shredded ahead of time, and homemade chicken stock can also be prepared in advance. Having those two ingredients ready makes this a particularly quick dinner to put together.
Final Thoughts
This soup was probably one of my favourite examples from the challenge of how leftover cooked chicken can become something that feels like a completely new dinner. It doesn’t take a huge amount of chicken to make a generous pot, and the gnocchi helps turn it into a really satisfying meal.
Making the stock from the chicken carcasses also meant I was able to use even more of those two $22 chickens rather than buying another ingredient for the soup.
Even if you aren’t starting with two whole chickens like I did, this is still a handy recipe to keep in mind whenever you have a couple of cups of cooked chicken sitting in the fridge. Add some gnocchi, cream and a few pantry staples and you’ve got a warm, comforting family dinner.
Marry Me Chicken Gnocchi Soup
Ingredients
- 2 medium onions diced
- 2 Tbsp reserved sun-dried tomato oil to cook the onions in
- 3-4 garlic cloves minced
- ¼ cup tomato paste
- 2 cups cooked chicken diced
- 6 cups chicken stock
- ½ cup sun-dried tomatoes diced
- ½ cup Parmesan cheese grated
- ½ cup frozen spinach
- salt and pepper to taste
- pinch dried basil
- pinch Italian seasoning
- 1½ cups cream
- 500 g packet gnocchi
Instructions
- Add the diced onions and oil to a large pot and cook over medium heat until they begin to soften.
- Add the garlic and tomato paste and cook for another few minutes, stirring regularly.
- Pour in the chicken stock, then add the cooked chicken, sun-dried tomatoes, Parmesan, dried basil and Italian seasoning.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for around 10 minutes to allow the flavours to come together.
- Add the gnocchi and cook according to the packet directions, or until the gnocchi is tender and cooked through.
- Stir through the frozen spinach and cream. Gently heat until the spinach is warmed through and the soup is hot. Avoid bringing it to a rapid boil once the cream has been added.
- Taste and season with salt and pepper as needed, then serve hot.
Notes
- Use cooked chicken rather than raw chicken for this recipe.
- Homemade or store-bought chicken stock can be used.
- Taste the soup before adding extra salt as the stock, Parmesan and sun-dried tomatoes already add seasoning.
- Fresh spinach can be substituted for frozen spinach.
- Add the cream towards the end and heat gently rather than boiling.
- Leftover soup will thicken as the gnocchi absorbs some of the broth.
