Creamy Chicken and Bacon Gnocchi

Chicken and bacon gnocchi with a garlic cream sauce made in just one pot for a quick and easy comfort meal. Garlic, parmesan and spinach tie this dish together, finished off with crispy bacon for a bit of melt-in-your-mouth crunch in each bite.

We use both milk and half & half in this chicken and bacon gnocchi, making the sauce extra creamy and comforting, with perfect notes of parmesan to pair with the garlic. I go to the Sherman’s Farm farmstand for the dairy in my cream sauces and I also use their bacon. I’m drooling just looking at the bowl of bacon crisps. Mini bacon chips meant to eaten like popcorn with a movie. DROOL.

How to make Chicken and Bacon Gnocchi

Crisp the bacon

In a large pot or skillet, cook bacon until crispy, set bacon aside. In a small bowl lined with tinfoil, pour out most of the hot bacon grease, leaving only 1-2 Tbl in the pot for cooking. Once the discarded grease has cooled down, fold up the tinfoil and dispose of the extra bacon grease.

Garlic cream sauce

Add butter to bacon grease in the pot and melt over medium heat. Add onion and sauté until translucent, 3-5 mins. Add garlic and cook one more minute. Stir in the thyme.

Using flour as a thickener for the sauce, we will add it now and stir for one minute until raw flour smell is gone. 

Add the wine and stir for one minute. White wine brightens the flavor of this sauce and compliments the garlic.

Slowly add the chicken broth while stirring constantly. There shouldn’t be any clumps from the flour. Slowly add milk and cream, stirring constantly. Bring to the mixture to a simmer.

Cook the gnocchi

Add nutmeg, red pepper flakes, gnocchi, and cooked chicken. Cook for 5 mins at a simmer. Stir periodically to keep the gnocchi from sticking.

Add parmesan & spinach

Turn off the heat and stir in grated parmesan and spinach. Cover and let sit for 5 mins. Place into serving bowls and serve with the crisp bacon on top with more fresh grated parmesan.

A few notes about this recipe:

• I use shelf stable potato gnocchi that can be found in the dry pasta aisle, I have not tried this recipe with fresh or homemade gnocchi. My preferred brand is De Cecco.
• I make this recipe with leftover oven-roasted chicken, I find that pulled chicken works well and stays moist. After roasting a chicken, I will pull the meat and freeze it in one cup servings for adding to one pot meals or chicken noodle soup. If you do not have cooked chicken, you can cook a single chicken breast in the bacon fat after cooking the bacon, let it rest 5 mins, and then pull apart.

Substitutions

• Don’t like spinach? This dish would be delicious with peas as well!
• You can also try this recipe with italian sausage instead of chicken and bacon. I suggest removing the sausage from the casings, cook it as you would the bacon. Add it back to the dish when instructed to add the chicken to the dish.
• This recipes calls for whole milk and cream with a roux to achieve the desired consistency. If you are using milk that is reduced fat, I suggest using less milk and more cream.
• Don’t have wine? Skip it! Wine is not necessary for this dish, it just adds slightly to the flavor.