Olive Garden Style Chicken Gnocchi Soup

I went to lunch today with a friend. We ate at Olive Garden. We had their soup, bread sticks and salad lunch special. It was a wonderful treat. We both got the new Chicken Gnocchi Soup. My friend was so enamored with the soup that she thought about buying three more servings to take home for her hubby and kids but I convinced her to try making it herself at home. I had high hopes of finding a "copycat" recipe inspired by this wonderful Olive Garden soup. I was very successful and I plan to make this soup very soon for my family. Please try it. I will most likely substitute chicken broth for the bullion cubes because of the MSG in most (if not all) bullion cubes that I have ever seen. If you know about any chicken bullion cubes sold that do not contain any form of MSG, please please please email me or send me some feedback about them. Here is the recipe that I found:


Olive Garden Style Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe
Post By Heather (Guest Post) (11/09/2008)

I used this recipe and I absolutely loved the soup. It seems to be the closest to the Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Cream Soup. From beginning to end it takes about 10 min. of prep and 30 min. cook time.

1/3 cup olive oil or butter
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 lb. chicken
1/3 cup flour
1/2 carrot shredded
1 stick of celery
1/2 cup fresh chopped spinach
2-1/2 cups whole milk
1-1/2 cup heavy cream
3 chicken bullion cubes
Cracked pepper to taste
17.6 oz. of Gnocchi from Target

On medium heat. Melt butter in a soup pot, add in the garlic and saute, add your chicken and cook through out. Add flour and stir in flour and mix well until the flour is cooked into the chicken. Next add your milk and heavy cream, then add the veggies (carrots, celery, spinach). Add three bullion cubes. Add your Gnocchi last it, takes 3-4 min. to cook through. Mix ingredients well until soup thickens and stir occasionally. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook

Crunchy Oven-Baked Chicken Toes!

Lately, D has been watching the Food Network non-stop. Apparently, he saw an episode of "Chopped" one night while he was home with his dad. Ever since, we have seen just about every Food Network Show. I don't mind except it gets D thinking about food constantly and eating more. He has been going on the treadmill more frequently, thank goodness.

On a lighter note, D decided that he wanted to make something out of Rachael Ray's Cooking Rocks! 30-Minute Meals for Kids cookbook. Probably because we were watching her show when he got home this afternoon. He picked the recipe for Crunchy Oven-Baked Chicken Toes. They were very tasty even with my substitutions. We didn't have any corn flakes so I had him use corn meal instead.

Crunchy Oven-Baked
CHICKEN TOES!

Makes 4 Servings

1 cup corn flakes cereal, any brand
1 cup plain bread crumbs
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon allspice (the SECRET ingredient)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1/3 cup all purpose flour
2 eggs, beaten
1-1/2 pounds chicken breast tenders (2 packages),
cut into two inch pieces by GH (Grown-up Helper)
1/4 cup honey mustard, any brand
1/4 cup barbecue sauce, any brand

Have your GH turn on the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Make the breading: pour the corn flakes into a pie pan or other large, shallow dish. Crush the cereal up with your hands. Mix in bread crumbs, brown sugar, salt, pepper, andn allspice (your SECRET ingredient; do not tell anybody what your secret ingredient is -- ever!).

Drizzle the vegetable oil evenly over the breading. Have the GH pour the oil out slowly. A vegetable oil bottle has a big opening, so 3 tablespoons will pour out pretty quickly, probably by the time you can count to 5, so watch the GH closely and count really loudly! Toss and turn it to mix the oil all through the bread crumbs and crushed-up corn flakes.

Pour the flour into another shallow dish, and the beaten eggs into a third. Turn the chicken in flour, then eggs, and then in the special crunchy breading. Arrange the chicken toes on a nonstick baking sheet. You and your GH should go and wash your hands now. Place the chicken toes in the oven and cook until crisp and brown all over, about 15 minutes.

When the toes come out of the oven, it's time to stir up the sauce for dipping them. Mix together honey mustard and barbecue sauce in a small bowl. Dip your hot chicken toes into your honey mustard barbecue sauce.

We ate these chicken toes with broccoli and mashed potatoes but Rachael Ray suggests Creamy Salsa Dip and Veggies and Fuji Apples and Peanutbuttery Caramel Dip. Both recipes can be found in her Cooking Rocks! cookbook.

Enjoy!

The Creative Cook