This corn chowder recipe is loaded with sweet corn, the bacon adds smokiness, and you will love how creamy and flavorful it is!
I based this corn chowder off my Easy Chicken and Corn Chowder. It's fairly thick, creamy, and fills you right up. I suppose since corn is in season in the summer and early fall, this is more of a summer soup. I see nothing wrong with eating soup year-round when you can crank up your air conditioning. 😉
You may also like my Salmon Chowder or my Ham and Corn Chowder.
This potato and corn chowder is sure to be a hit with the whole family. The sweetness of the corn and all the bacon makes it irresistible in my opinion! This soup is the perfect satisfying one pot meal.
What kind of corn to use?
I used frozen corn, but if you've got fresh corn, then by all means use it! Just cut it off the cob and add it to the soup. You could even grill it and then add it for extra smokiness. I'd buy 4-5 cobs of corn to make what's needed for this soup. I don't recommend canned corn unless you're really in a pinch. I find the flavor and texture of frozen or fresh to be a lot better.
Recipe notes & tips:
- I don't recommend subbing the cream for milk or half-and-half because there's a good chance the soup will curdle (it happened in another of my chowder recipes) since we boil it, so exercise caution if doing that.
- You can sub the Russet potatoes for another kind if you wish.
- The cayenne pepper doesn't make the soup particularly spicy, but it does add a little extra zip.
- I like to prep as I go along to save time, but feel free to prepare everything ahead of time if that's more comfortable for you.
- This soup is quite thick to begin with, and it thickens up more the longer you leave it. Feel free to add a little more chicken broth to leftovers if you need to thin it out a touch. It's one of those better-the-next-day kinda soups in my opinion. The flavors meld even more.
Other recipes with corn to try:
Let me know if you've made this easy corn chowder recipe! Questions? Ask me in the comments below.
Corn Chowder
Ingredients
- 4 strips bacon cut into small pieces
- 1/2 medium onion chopped small
- 3 sticks celery chopped small
- 2 medium carrots peeled & chopped small
- 1/4 cup flour
- 2 cloves garlic minced
- 4 cups chicken broth or stock
- 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 4 cups frozen or fresh corn
- 2 large Russet potatoes peeled & diced
- 1 dash Italian seasoning
- 1 pinch cayenne pepper optional
- Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
- Prep your bacon (I use kitchen shears to make cutting it up easy) and add it to a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook until crispy (about 10 minutes).
- Meanwhile, prep your onion, celery, and potatoes.
- Once the bacon is crispy, take it out of the pot and remove to a paper towel lined plate. Leave about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat in the pot.
- Add the onion, celery, and carrots to the pot and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
- Stir in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring nearly constantly.
- Add in the chicken broth and give it a good stir to ensure the flour has dissolved and the brown bits are scraped up from the bottom of the pot.
- Add in the cream, corn, potatoes, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, and most of the bacon (I save the rest for garnishing the bowls later on). Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. Once it's boiling, reduce the heat to a rapid simmer so it's gently boiling. Cover the pot so the lid is slightly ajar.
- Cook until the potatoes are tender (about 15-20 minutes). Stir every so often. The soup will thicken up more the longer you cook it.
- Season the soup with salt & pepper as needed. Garnish bowls with the rest of the bacon.
Notes
- Serves 4-6 depending on portion size.
- You may need to add more broth to leftovers as the soup thickens the longer you leave it.
- Since the cream is boiled, I would NOT recommend subbing it for milk or half-and-half because there's a good chance it'll curdle from the high heat.
- Nutritional information is provided as a courtesy only and should be construed as an estimate rather than a guarantee. Ingredients can vary and Salt & Lavender makes no guarantees to the accuracy of this information
Karen says
I recommend using white pepper. It’s such an underrated spice and has a different flavor from black pepper.
K Moore says
Very easy to make and delicious!
Miranda @ Salt & Lavender says
Awesome to hear! 🙂
Nancy says
Made this exactly according to the recipe and did not look like this
It looks like parsley in it. And it’s more golden colored mine was not
Not a fan of this recipe
Natasha says
Yes... I added parsley for the photos. Mostly for a little pop of color. You can for sure add it if you wish, but it's not an integral part of the recipe or else I would've included it in the recipe itself. You didn't mention anything about the actual taste of the recipe... that's the important thing. Ingredients, lighting conditions when taking photos etc. all can vary. It's like buying clothes. Do you expect the clothes to look exactly the same on you as they do the model?
Julia Houston says
This was delish! I ended up using double amount of whole milk vs cream because that’s what I had. I precooked all veggies together in microwave for 4 minutes— just to be sure they cooked thoroughly so milk wouldn’t curdle. I’d highly recommend this recipe!
Natasha says
Excellent - glad your tweaks worked out! 🙂