Homemade corn chowder is the epitome of comfort food to me. I like using my slow cooker because it saves time, and most importantly it allows the flavours to meld and develop throughout the day. Here is my fave recipe:
Slow Cooker Homemade Corn Chowder
This summer Corn Chowder is creamy, comforting and full of flavor! Made with an abundance of fresh sweet corn, tender potatoes, flavorful hearty bacon, and finished with chives and cheese. Truly this soup is too hard to resist and can be enjoyed all summer long!
Equipment
- slow cooker
Ingredients
- 1 pack bacon, cooked & chopped
- 1 tbsps butter
- 1 large yellow onion, diced
- 3 stalks of celery, diced
- ¼ cup all purpose flour
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 5 cups broth (I prefer vegetable broth or bone broth)
- Corn (You can decide which you prefer) – EITHER use 5 ears of sweet corn (sliced off the cob), OR 2 cans of peaches and cream corn OR 2 cups of frozen corn (if using frozen corn, add 1 tablespoon of honey to replace the “corn milk” that canned or fresh corn generate)
- 1 lb potatoes, diced
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 2 tsps smoked paprika
- 1 cup heavy cream (can sub half/half no problem)
- salt and pepper to taste
- fresh chives for garnish
Instructions
- Cook your bacon in a large pan. Remove and place on a paper towel lined plate. SAVE THE BACON FAT.
- Dump your diced onions and celery into the hot bacon fat pan. Heat those until the onions are soft and translucent, about 5-6 minutes or so.
- Go ahead and dump your corn, onions, and celery into your crock pot now.
- Back to the dirty pan – add in your butter, garlic, flour, and broth – stir and stir and stir until hot, about 2 minutes. Pour that into your slow cooker carefully next.
- Dice your potatoes and add to the slow cooker.
- Dice your potatoes and add to the slow cooker.
- Dice your potatoes and add to the slow cooker.
- At the 7 hour (ish) mark, take your potato masher and mash up the soup – you’ll want to get those potatoes smooshed up as this is what will naturally thicken your chowder. Some recipes call for you to remove half of your soup and blend it in an immersion blender, but this is entirely unnecessary. Potato mash away. How long should you mash for? Depends on how much chunks you like. Less mashing equals more chunks. Taste your chowder and adjust seasonings as necessary.
- When you are 30 minutes away from eating, add your heavy cream. We wait til the end to add this so it doesn’t separate and stays creamy.
- Dish up! Top with your freshly cooked bacon and chopped chives.
Notes
Soup will refrigerate just fine – it’s really good to save and eat throughout the week. Once you add the cream to the chowder it does NOT freeze well, so either use it within a few days, or dish it up and freeze before adding the cream (just thaw and heat with the required cream when you’re ready to eat it).