Chicken and Mushroom Gnocchi Bake – soft potato gnocchi baked in a creamy sauce with chicken and mushrooms. An easy weeknight dinner that will feed a crowd!
I didn’t grow up eating gnocchi. They weren’t readily available in the UK back then as far as I know, apart from in some obscure specialist Italian shops, perhaps, so I was pretty late to the gnocchi party. However, once I discovered these soft, pillowy little potato morsels, you couldn’t stop me using them in everything. In my mind they are like a wonderful hybrid of potatoes and pasta and, for a carb-lover like myself, that equals the perfect scrummy comfort food.
The method I usually default to for cooking gnocchi is to boil them for a minute or two in a pan of water (that’s really all it takes), but I then like to add a second stage of pan-frying them in a little oil until they are golden brown and crispy all over. This second stage adds so much to the flavour and texture with the crunchy coating surrounding a velvet-soft interior. Oh so yummy!
As delightful as fried gnocchi are, today we are mixing things up a bit with a baked gnocchi recipe which is super easy to prepare and uses items which you are quite likely to have already in your fridge.
Here, cooked gnocchi are combined in an easy creamy sauce with some leftover cooked chicken and some fried mushrooms and the whole lot is popped in the oven for half an hour. It’s a great family dinner and couldn’t be simpler to make.
I like having a side serving of some green vegetables with this gnocchi bake – steamed broccoli or green beans would be perfect.
And while we are on the subject of baked casserole type dishes, if you are a big fan, like me, it would be remiss of me not to also mention my super popular Winter Vegetable Gratin recipe which I think you’ll love! 😉
Chicken and Mushroom Gnocchi Bake
Prep
Cook
Total
Yield 6 servings
Chicken and Mushroom Gnocchi Bake - soft potato gnocchi baked in a creamy sauce with chicken and mushrooms. An easy weeknight dinner that will feed a crowd!
Ingredients
- 800g fresh potato gnocchi
- 600g mushrooms, sliced
- 2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded
- 2 onions, roughly chopped
- 500ml single cream
- 200ml whole milk
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 100g parmesan cheese, grated
- 1 bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
- pinch of salt
- pinch of freshly ground black pepper
- pinch of ground nutmeg
- 2tbsp olive oil
- 40g butter
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas Mark 6.
- Melt the butter in a large frying pan over a medium heat and add the garlic and onions. Cook for a few minutes until softened.
- Add the olive oil to the pan along with the mushrooms. Increase the heat and cook for 5-10 minutes until golden brown.
- Add the chicken, cream and milk as well as the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Simmer for 5 minutes.
- Bring a large pan of salted water to the boil and cook the gnocchi according to the packet instructions (usually 1-2 minutes). Drain in a colander.
- Add the drained gnocchi to the sauce and stir in the parsley and half of the cheese.
- Transfer to a casserole dish, sprinkle with the remaining cheese and place in the oven for around 30 minutes, until bubbling and golden brown on top.
Courses Main Dish
Cuisine Italian
Join me as I make healthy Mediterranean style recipes!
Rebecca I am not sure if you have published a cookbook yet but I love our recipes. Something different here in the USA and sound wonderful. Will be trying the pasta with peas and bacon following my next shopping trip.Thank you! Sheree
Hi Sheree! No, I haven’t published a cookbook, but thank you so much for the lovely compliment! Oh, yes, do try the pasta recipe – one of my favourites! Happy cooking!
I cooked this last night – amazing – my son is vegetarian and asked me to do it for him tonight without the chicken – I think it will work well as a veggie dish