You are in for comforting heaven with this Chicken Mushroom and Spinach Gnocchi. I think shiitake mushrooms and parmesan make every one-pot dish better. And homemade gnocchi is something you will never want to buy premade again. You can even prep most of the recipe early in the day to save time!
This recipe is the ultimate comfort food! The flavors are best described as a upgrade on Chicken and Noodles over Mashed Potatoes. The Chicken and the Potato Gnocchi with that sauce…YUM! Then the spinach and mushroom just give it an earthy flavor that I love. This recipe is made often in our house!
You will never regret making the gnocchi homemade!
When I first made this, I got all chef-y and decided to make gnocchi homemade for the first time. It is surprisingly easy. I just cooked the potatoes early in the day, put them through this potato ricer and let them cool. I’m always up for a challenge when it involves making food taste better!
I made the dough and dumplings right before I needed them for the dish. I used Lidia Bastianich’s recipe for homemade gnocchi. Lidia says you can make the recipe all the way to the dumpling stage and then freeze the dumplings immediately after making them up. I usually make enough for three of these recipes, so I like to freeze the rest. When you make them in the future, use them directly from the freezer, stirring them into the chicken, mushroom and spinach mixture right before you put it in the oven.
Prep ahead dishes save me time at the dinner hour!
One of the things I like the most about this recipe is that I can prep most of it in advance, and have very little to do before dinner. That is why I like to include the “Prep Ahead” section on my recipes, if possible. That is so important because we are all so busy! This is truly an amazing plate of food!
Here’s how to avoid tough chicken in the dish:
An issue I have a lot with “casserole” dishes with chicken, is getting the chicken cooked correctly before it goes in the dish. I have been working on this problem for years. I have baked, boiled, crock-potted, and grilled the chicken for recipes that call for it to be pre-cooked. One problem with it is the unevenness of the chicken breasts. I don’t like to pound it for recipes like this. So, I have kind of devised a way that works really well for chopped up chicken breast. You can find my secret in my Cooking Tips, How to Pre-Cook the Perfect Chicken Breast to Chop Up for Recipes.
Of course you can always just buy a rotisserie chicken, but I feel the meat is not firm enough for many “chopped cooked chicken” recipes. I don’t mean firm as in tough. Just that it holds together well in the recipe. Although I love using a rotisserie chicken for soups!
Make it a new mushroom side dish!
I love this so much that I decided that it was special enough to make it a side dish for Christmas Dinner. For a side dish, I just make it without chicken. It just felt more like a side dish when I made it without the meat. And bonus, the meatless version will please the vegetarians in the family!
I have no doubt that this recipe will become a regular on your family menu!
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Chicken Mushroom and Spinach with Gnocchi Recipe
- Total Time: 70
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Ingredients
2 cups shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups shitake mushrooms, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
3/4 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
1 cup chicken stock
2 cups chopped or shredded chicken
1 lb. potato gnocchi, frozen or homemade
1 1/2 cups loosely packed baby spinach
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°. Heat the olive oil in a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat. Sauté mushrooms, season with salt and pepper.
- Melt the butter in a medium skillet. Add the flour, whisk, and cook over medium heat until bubbling. Stir in the cream, milk and chicken stock and cook until slightly thickened. Season with salt and pepper.
- In a large casserole dish, mix the chicken, sauce, mushrooms, spinach and gnocchi together. Sprinkle with parmesan.
- Bake for 30 minutes. Broil at the end to brown the top of the casserole.
Notes
PREP AHEAD – Bake Chicken, cut up and sauté mushrooms, make sauce (butter, flour, milk, broth, salt). Combine all and refrigerate until ready to bake. When ready to cook, add frozen gnocchi. spinach and parmesan, stir and bake.
SAVE TIME – Gnocchi can be purchased frozen or made homemade. For homemade, try Lidia Bastianich’s recipe from Epicurious. Use a rotisserie chicken to save even more time.