Italian Chicken and Potato soup

If you have never had Olive Garden’s Chicken and gnocchi soup, you are missing out on something amazing! After I had it the first time, I was hooked! I came home and couldn’t get it out of my mind, so I decided to try and make it myself -instead of going broke at OG! I changed a few things, like instead of gnocchi I used potato’s. I figured they were potato gnocchi, so it wouldn’t be that big of a change. I actually think I like this version just as much, if not better than the one from Olive Garden. I hope you do too.

You will need;
-3 – 4 chicken breasts
-4 cups chicken stock
-2 cups half-and-half
-1 stalk celery, diced
-1 garlic clove, chopped
-1/2 carrot, shredded or chopped
-1/2 onion, diced
-1 cup fresh spinach, chopped
-1 tablespoon olive oil
-1 teaspoon thyme
-salt and pepper
-5 large Yukon Gold or 8 – 10 Red Potato’s, cubbed
1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)

Directions:

1. Saute the onion, celery, garlic, carrot in oil over medium heat until onion is translucent. Remove from pot and set aside.

2. Cut up chicken into bite size pieces, cook them in the same pot -why dirty more dishes?- with 1 tablespoon of butter, 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil, 1 tablespoon of garlic powder, and salt and pepper to taste. The plan is to season from the bottom up.

3. When the chicken is just done, add back the veggies and then add in the chicken stock, half and half, salt and pepper, & thyme. Heat to boiling, then add the potato’s. Gently boil for 4 minutes, then turn down to a simmer for for about 20 minutes, or until the potato’s are done.

4. Add spinach and cook for another 1-2 minutes until spinach is wilted.
(Heat to boiling and add cornstarch dissolved in 1-2 Tbsp water at this point if you want a thicker soup.) Here is a tip. If you are out of corn starch, or just can’t use it.. You can always thicken potato soups with instant mashed potato flakes! It works amazing!

Ladle into bowls and serve! When you get that bite with everything on it, you will see what I am talking about!

Good East!!

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