Chicken Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

• 6 strips bacon cut into small pieces
• 2 large chicken breasts cut into small bite-size pieces
• 1/2 medium onion chopped
• 2 sticks celery chopped
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 4 cups chicken broth or stock
• 2 cups frozen corn
• 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
• 4 potatoes cooked and diced
• 2 Tbsp better than bullion chicken flavor
• Dash Italian seasoning
• Pinch cayenne pepper optional
• Salt & pepper to taste
• Scallions chopped

Instructions:

1. Prep your bacon (I find kitchen shears the easiest thing to cut it up with) and add it to a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook until crispy (about 10 minutes).

2. Meanwhile, prep your onion, celery, chicken and potatoes. 

3. Once the bacon is crispy, take it out of the pot and set it aside. Leave the grease in the pot. 

4. Add the onion and celery to the pot and sauté for 5 minutes.

5. Stir in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring nearly constantly.

6. Add in the garlic, followed by the chicken broth. Give it a good stir to ensure the flour has dissolved and everything is scraped up from the bottom of the pot. 

7. Add in the chicken, corn, cream, potatoes, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, bullion, and bacon. Reduce the heat to medium and bring the soup to a boil. Once it's boiling, reduce the heat to a rapid simmer. 

8. Cook until warm through. Stir every so often. The soup will get thicker the longer you cook it.

9. Season the soup with salt & pepper as needed. Garnish with the chopped scallions.

NOTES:

I buy the Costco pre-cooked bacon. So use the same instructions as above. However because the bacon is mostly cooked add 2 tablespoons of butter when removing the bacon. 

I put the chicken into a crock pot cover with water and let cook 6 - 8 hours. Then use diced chicken and liquid in the recipe.

I cook the potatoes in the microwave to save time.