This Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Gnocchi Soup is rich and hearty without any heavy cream! Made with the convenience of the slow cooker, and packed with white beans and vegetables, this soup is cozy, yet healthy and the perfect dinner any day of the week!
Place the chicken, onion, carrots, garlic, parmesan rind (if using), tomatoes, broth, Italian seasoning, basil, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper into the bowl a slow cooker or crockpot and stir to combine*.
Cover and cook on HIGH for 1 ½ - 2 ½ hours or LOW for 3 ½ - 4 ½ hours. (The chicken will continue to cooking in the next steps.)
Add the evaporated milk, white beans and cornstarch (dissolved in water) to the slow cooker. Stir well to combine. Cover and cook on HIGH for an additional 30 minutes, or until the soup is slightly thickened.
Add in the gnocchi and continue to cook on HIGH for 20-30 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the spinach, cover the slow cooker and cook until spinach is wilted, about 5-10 minutes.
Taste and adjust the soup for seasoning with salt and pepper. Serve immediately topped with fresh parmesan and optional garnishes if using. Enjoy!
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Notes
You can substitute boneless skinless chicken thighs for chicken breasts if desired. Just make sure you cut the chicken into bite sized cubes, regardless of what cut of chicken you use.
You can either use chicken broth or chicken stock in this recipe. I used chicken broth since the recipe also calls for evaporated milk, and I felt the milk gave the soup plenty of rich mouthfeel.
While the recipe calls for evaporated milk to save a few calories, you can absolutely substitute half-and-half or heavy cream if you are looking for an even richer soup.
If spinach isn’t your thing, kale is a delicious substitution.
While this soup reheats well, the gnocchi will soak up a good amount of the liquid during storage. Therefore you may need to add more evaporated milk (or half-and-half or heavy cream depending on what you used in the soup) when reheating. The amount of liquid you add will depend entirely on how much soup you are reheating and how “soupy” of a consistency you are looking for.