The Jarred Copycat For Anyone Who Craves Olive Garden's Chicken Gnocchi Soup At Home

It's the pits when you're craving a specific dish from a favorite restaurant, but dining out isn't in the budget. Thankfully, copycat products can help satisfy even the fiercest cravings — and, if you're craving Olive Garden's classic chicken gnocchi soup, then you (and your budget) are in luck. Introducing: Rao's Made for Home Chicken and Gnocchi Soup.

A Reddit thread asks fellow soup-afficanados to help "find a canned soup close to Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi [...] I can't afford to spend upwards of $19 weekly on the soup, but I'm obsessed with it." The post's top comment suggests Rao's jarred equivalent, which many foodies compare favorably to Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi soup. According to fans, the two soups feature strikingly similar ingredients, flavor profiles, and textures. Others chime in, "I'm ride or die for homemade soup but Rao's soups are probably some of the best shelf stable soups I've had!"

Like Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi soup, Rao's soup delivers creamy, herb-seasoned broth with carrots, celery, and onions, bobbing with chunks of chicken and gnocchi. Rao's heat-and-serve soup is also made from chicken raised without antibiotics and without any artificial colors or flavors. In fact, we can actually pronounce every single ingredient listed on the label. Amazon customers rave, "This soup is a wonderful find. I find it great quality, the broth is not greasy, but nicely seasoned." Target reviewers agree: "This Rao's soup is delicious. It is full of flavor. It isn't very salty. It tastes fresh and natural." 

There's no doubt that Olive Garden's chicken gnocchi soup is iconic — but, here at Tasting Table, we strongly recommend home cooks whip up their own takes on the dish. While the combination of toothy potato dumplings, rich broth, and al dente veggies makes for an ultra-comforting soup (in theory), Olive Garden's execution has been known to fall flat. In fact, in our ranking of every Olive Garden soup flavor, chicken gnocchi ranked last for its slimy, oily broth texture, plain boiled chicken, and "gummy, mealy" gnocchi (nice).

Instead, we suggest foodies take a cue from our copycat Olive Garden creamy chicken gnocchi soup recipe, which comes together in about half an hour. Making your own version of the soup also allows the opportunity to use superior-quality ingredients, such as roasted chicken breast or flavorful rotisserie chicken, over the processed pink stuff in Olive Garden's soup. Foodies can also cook that pillowy gnocchi to tender perfection; it can often be unpleasantly overcooked and mushy at the restaurant. Or, home cooks might try opting for the convenience-centric jarred soup offering from Rao's, which is a solid dupe in a pinch.  

Rao's jarred offering comes at a much more budget-friendly price point than ordering out from Olive Garden. At a restaurant location in Illinois, a bowl of chicken gnocchi soup and two breadsticks costs $9.99. Rao's Chicken and Gnocchi Soup, by contrast, currently retails for $3.97 per 16-ounce jar on Amazon, or for $4.99 at Target.