Instant Pot Chicken Gnocchi Soup (Olive Garden Copycat)

Are there any sweeter words in the world than “unlimited soup and breadsticks?” Honestly, I’m not sure there are – and my mouth is watering now thinking about dipping a buttery, garlicky breadstick into a bowl of Olive Garden’s delicious chicken gnocchi soup? While I won’t cover the breadsticks here on this post (this is a soup blog, after all!), I am happy to share how to make one of Olive Garden’s most popular soups at home.

While this obviously isn’t their exact secret recipe, I did my best to reproduce Olive Garden’s warming, filling recipe for chicken gnocchi soup at home using an Instant Pot. (You can use any pressure cooker to do this yourself if you don’t have the brand name device.)

Is your mouth watering too? Let’s dive in – here’s how to use an Instant Pot to make Olive Garden’s chicken gnocchi soup.

Making Instant Pot Chicken Gnocchi Soup

While chicken gnocchi soup isn’t quite as easy to make as my celery soup recipe, it’s not too difficult! Especially when you have an Instant Pot with the settings to help make sure you get just the right temperatures for each step of the process.

To start, you’ll need to use the sauté setting to cook the celery, carrot, onion, and garlic in the chicken broth until they are soft. Then you need to add the chicken and thyme and continue to let the soup cook (now on the soup setting). This ensures the flavors will get all mixed deliciously together.

Finally, it’s time for the unique ingredient that makes this Instant Pot chicken gnocchi soup special: the gnocchi! Once you add that, it’s time to pressure cook the soup. You only need 5 minutes of pressure cooking, but it will take about 15 minutes to pressurize, cook, and depressurize your Instant Pot.

Once you’ve released the pressure – that’s it! You’re done; all that’s left is to enjoy and get back to dreaming about those breadsticks… (But if you’re really jonesing for them, I added a link to them below for you!)

Instant Pot Chicken Gnocchi Soup Recipe

If you want to cook this Olive Garden Chicken Gnocchi Soup copycat recipe in a large pot on your stovetop (or you don’t have an Instant Pot), that easy too:

• Sauté the vegetables in the butter in the bottom of your soup pot.
• Add the chicken broth and cook for the same amount of time as the Instant Pot version.
• When you add the chicken and thyme, let the soup simmer for 20-25 minutes.
• Add the gnocchi and let the soup cook for another 20-25 minutes until the gnocchi is tender. No need to depressurize!

Cooking this recipe on the stovetop does take a bit longer than cooking in an Instant Pot (hence the name), but if you don’t have one, it’s a good alternative.

Olive Garden Breadsticks Copycat Recipe

I know, I sold you on the breadsticks part of this “endless soup and breadsticks” deal but didn’t include half of it in this recipe. If you can’t imagine your “endless soup” of chicken gnocchi soup without those “breadsticks,” never fear. This recipe from Cooking Classy is the perfect one to help you make those too. Be warned though: just looking at the pictures will make your mouth water again!

Have other questions about this Instant Pot Chicken Gnocchi Soup recipe? Let me know in the comments!