Chicken Chowder

By Jen -
Chicken Chowder

Recipe

3 cups cooked shredded or diced chicken meat
8 cups homemade chicken stock
4 slices bacon, chopped
1 onion, chopped fine
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp minced fresh thyme or 1/4 tsp dried
1/3 cup flour
2 pounds Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 carrot, washed, peeled if you choose, and sliced or diced.
1 red bell pepper, stemmed, seeded and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 heavy cream + 1/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper
2 Tb minced fresh parsley (optional - add when serving)

*This soup freezes really well.
**Additions: you can add fresh or frozen yellow corn to this soup or even hominy. Also try a poblano chili with cilantro as a garnish.

All-Time Best Soups
Basic recipe gets full credit from
Cooks Illustrated All Time Best Soups


First step: Gather ingredients and prep them for the pot. Speaking of pots, this soup is worth the time to pull out that dutch oven you might keep on the back shelf.
Getting everything ready is called mise en place...





Step 2: Heat up the pot a bit and add the cut up bacon. Cook over medium heat to render off the fat and get the bacon crispy. Medium heat means that this shouldn't be a sizzling, smokey mess. It takes a bit of time. If the bacon is burning, turn the heat down. 
You can take some of the bacon out at this point to sprinkle over the top when serving. 


Step 3: Add onion and cook until softened, 5 minutes or so. Stir in the garlic and thyme, cooking until fragrant - which is all of 30 seconds tops. Sprinkle the flour over the whole mixture and stir/scrap for about a minute.

Step 4: Gradually whisk in your broth or stock and scrap up the browned bits on the bottom of your pot. The flour, you'll note is thickening the stock and you can break up any lumps that might form. Add potatoes and carrots. Bring to a soft boil before reducing to a nice gentle simmer until all the vegetables are tender. 10-15 minutes.

Step 5: Stir in the cream and milk and now you can finally add in the cut up chicken. Let everything heat thoroughly for a couple of minutes and remove from heat.

Not only does this soup freeze really well but when it is defrosted and heated back up on the stove, those luscious yukon gold potatoes break apart and give the soup an added velvety texture. That's one of the reason why I kept the cream down in the recipe - it just doesn't need it.

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