There is nothing like a hot bowl of soup on a cold winters’ day!

And one of our favorites is Chicken Gnocchi Soup.

If you have ever gone to Olive Garden and had their Chicken Gnocchi, this is very much like that.

Except better!

Chicken Gnocchi Soup

Ingredients

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup celery, chopped fine

3/4 cup onion, chopped fine

1/2 cup carrots, chopped fine

1 1/2 teaspoons garlic, minced

1/3 cup All Purpose Flour

3/4 cup heavy cream

3/4 cup milk

4 cups chicken broth

1 1/2 cup cooked, boneless, skinless chicken breast

3/4 cup spinach, chopped fine

16 oz gnocchi

1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/4 teaspoon white pepper

1/2 teaspoon salt

Directions

Start by cleaning your chicken breast. Using heavy tin foil, place chicken on a sheet and add salt and pepper.

Wrap and place in a 400 degree oven for 25-30 minutes or until done.

Rough chop the celery, onion, carrots and place in the food processor. Mince the garlic and add to the food processor.

Pulse the food processor and scrap sides down until the vegetables are finely chopped. May sure there are no larger pieces.

Melt butter on medium high in a large stock pot or dutch oven.

Add vegetables from the food processor. Saute for 1 to 2 minutes.

Add Flour. It should make a paste. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes.

Whisk in heavy cream, milk and chicken stock. Bring to a boil and allow to thicken.

While you are waiting for the soup to thicken, place your spinach in the food processor and chop down fine.

Once soup has started to boil, reduce the heat  to medium and add spinach, gnocchi and seasonings.

Season to taste.

For the gnocchi, I use store bought to save time during the week.

While they aren’t fresh, they are still good.

Remove chicken from the oven and rough chop. Add to the food processor and chop fine.

Add chicken to the soup. Allow the soup to cook for 8 to 10 minutes.

Serve!

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I recently saw this recipe on “The Best Thing I Ever Made” on the Food Network. It was a recipe by John Besh. I decided to give it a try tonight, but of course gave it my own twist. In his recipe, it a Pork Shoulder. I had a Pork Tenderloin in the freezer, so I decided to make it instead. Because my tenderloin was smaller, I also had to make adjustments in the measurements.

Ingredients

• 2.5 pound Pork Tenderloin
• Salt and Pepper
• Fresh Rosemary (you can’t use dry for this)
• 7 garlic cloves, sliced thin
• 1 white onion, rough chopped
• 1 cup baby carrots, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• butcher’s string

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Chop the celery, onion and carrots and place into a roasting pan or glass roasting dish. I lined mine with foil for easy clean up.

Slice up garlic cloves into smaller long pieces. Pull four rosemary stems off and have them ready to use.

Truss your tenderloin by using butcher’s string. To truss, start by tying the end off.

Then take the string and circle under the tenderloin, while holding the string in place an inch from your first knot.

When you circle the meat, take the string that is coming around and feed it behind the hold spot. Pull slightly to place it.

Repeat until you reach the end. Tie it off in a knot.

Make sure you have them about 1 1/2 inches apart. This will help hold your meat together while it cooks.

After you have finish, take a paring knife and make a small slit in the top of the meat. Take one piece of clove and pull a small spring of rosemary and place both into the slit. Cover the top of the tenderloin with your garlic and rosemary.

Place tenderloin on top of the chopped vegetables. Salt and Pepper.

Place the oven, uncovered for 2 1/2 hours or until your meat has an internal temperature of 155 degrees. Take it from the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

To slice, remove the rosemary and garlic cloves. Cut the butcher’s string from the meat. Slice and serve. Trash your vegetables or use them to make a gravy.

We had our with white rice and gravy, black-eye peas, and collard greens. The gravy I made was not from the dipping in the roasting pan, but a bacon gravy. For being cooked uncovered for 2 1/2 hours, the tenderloin was surprisingly very moist! It was a wonderful Sunday afternoon dinner that any Southern girl would be proud of.

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