Chicken and Gnocchi

I usually make Chicken ‘n Dumplins, but tonight I had a new recipe, courtesy of a very petite, feisty Italian woman I’m sure we’re all familiar with. I did change the recipe, but not too much. I chose to omit the pesto and changed a couple of ingredients. Here’s what I did:
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 pounds chicken breasts, diced into bite-sized pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons butter, divided
1 package sliced mushrooms
1 cup carrot medallions – I bought them pre-cut (the ones with the ridges) because time was of the essence
4 ribs celery from the heart, very thinly sliced
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 cups chicken stock, divided
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 lemon , zested
2 (10 to 12-ounce) packages, fresh gnocchi

Place a large pot of water on to boil for gnocchi.Heat a pot with 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, over medium-high heat. Add chicken, season with salt and pepper, and lightly brown. Remove to a plate and add another tablespoon of olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter and heat. Add mushrooms, carrots, celery, and garlic, season with salt and pepper. Soften 5 minutes, sprinkle in flour and cook 2 minutes. Stirin 2 1/2 cups stock, slide the chicken back into the pot and simmer to allow sauce to thicken, covered.

Heat two tablespoons butter with lemon zest over low heat until butter is melted.

Drop gnocchi in boiling water, cook until the gnocchi floats (maybe two minutes at the most – keep an eye on them, they can get gooey quickly), drain and add to the lemon butter and season with salt and pepper, to taste. Toss the gnocchi 2 to 3 minutes in lemon butter until light golden at edges.

Turn heat off chicken. Serve the chicken in shallow bowls and top with lemon butter gnocchi.

It was pretty tasty, if a little oily. I think next time I’ll cut the olive oil down a bit and perhaps omit the lemon butter on the gnocchi. I am glad that I chose to omit the pesto…I think that would have been a bit much. I also will not forget the bay leaves. With that aside, it was pretty tasty (if I do say so myself) and because I could buy the mushrooms and carrots pre-prepped, it didn’t take too long to put together. It took about 40 minutes including the prep and getting the other stuff ready to go along with it.