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This chicken and corn chowder recipe is cozy, flavorful, and easy to make. Bacon makes this recipe extra delicious!
You may also like my Ham and Corn Chowder, which was inspired by this one.
Why you’ll love it
Corn chowder is already comforting, but pairing it with juicy chicken and crispy bacon takes it over the top in this simple recipe that’s made all in one pot. It’s one of my go-to meals in late summer especially, but I find myself craving it year-round.
Corn is good any time of year if you buy it frozen, but there’s something special about enjoying corn when it’s in season in late summer through fall. Corn chowder always hits the spot as the weather starts to turn a little crisp. I also love using it in my Creamy Corn Chowder and this Salmon Chowder!
What exactly is chowder?
- Ok, so we’ve all heard the word “chowder” and know that it’s a soup, but why are some soups called chowders while others aren’t? So, according to the internet, chowders are soups that are often thickened by way of a roux. That’s pretty much what we’re doing here since we’ve got the flour as our main thickening agent. Other methods include broken crackers.
- They typically contain fish, clams, or corn with potatoes and onions. I don’t know about you, but it seems like a weird definition. Like why group fish and clams with potatoes, corn, and onions and decide to classify it as “chowder” rather than “soup”? If anyone wants to do more in-depth research than I’ve conducted or knows why, please let me know. 😛
Ingredients for it
- Bacon – I find it’s easiest to cut up bacon with kitchen shears
- Chicken – we’re using chicken breasts in this recipe
- Onion, garlic, and celery – for the tasty base of the soup
- Flour – a thickening agent
- Chicken broth – a 32 oz carton of broth equals 4 cups. Just pour the entire thing in for this recipe. If you’re sensitive to salt, I suggest using low-sodium chicken broth. Chicken stock works too!
- Corn – feel free to use fresh corn (just cut if off the cob with a knife) if you have some. Canned corn isn’t quite as good, so I’d choose frozen over canned.
- Heavy cream – for added richness and thickness
- Potatoes – we prefer Russet in this recipe
- Italian seasoning – it’s a blend of dried herbs in a single convenient jar
- Cayenne – a pinch of cayenne pepper is optional but adds a little warmth
How to make chicken and corn chowder
This is an overview with step-by-step photos. Full ingredients & instructions are in the recipe card below.
Cook your bacon in a large pot until crispy, then take it out of the pot and transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Leave the grease in the pot. This adds so much flavor to the soup! Sauté the onion and celery in it.
Stir in the flour, and cook it for about a minute to cook out that “flour” taste. Add the garlic to the pot, and deglaze with the chicken broth.
Put in the remaining ingredients, saving some of the bacon for topping it later, and simmer until the potatoes are done and the soup has thickened as desired. Season with salt & pepper and garnish with chopped scallions if you like.
Pro tip
- I’ve had a few people ask me in the comments if the chicken should be added in raw. Yes! There’s no need to pre-cook it because it has plenty of time to cook in the soup. Over-cooking chicken makes it dry and rubbery.
Substitutions and variations
- I have tested this chicken chowder recipe with other potatoes besides Russets. I made this with 1.5 pounds of yellow little potatoes (baby Yukon golds) cut into halves/quarters and it turned out fine, but I prefer Russets.
- We don’t recommend substituting the heavy cream for something with a lower fat content. We’re not using a ton of it here, and it makes the chowder that much tastier!
- This is a fairly thick soup. If you like a thinner consistency better, just add a little more broth or water as necessary.
What to serve with it
- It’s one of those meals that’s perfect on its own with a big slice of crusty bread.
- If you do want to pair it with a salad, try this Super Simple Parmesan Arugula Salad.
Leftovers and storage
- This chowder will keep in an airtight container in the fridge for 3-4 days.
- Simply reheat in a small saucepan over a low heat, stirring occasionally until warmed through.
- You could try to freeze it, but sometimes dairy doesn’t hold up after thawing, so the texture may change. It should still taste fine, though. If you plan to have a lot of leftovers, you can leave the cream out before freezing and add it in later!
Will you give this chicken and corn chowder a try? Questions? Ask me in the comments. 🙂
Easy Chicken and Corn Chowder
Ingredients
- 6 strips bacon cut into small pieces
- 2 large uncooked 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 or fresh corn
- 1 cup heavy/whipping cream
- 3 medium-to-large Russet potatoes peeled & diced
- 1/4 teaspoon Italian seasoning
- Pinch cayenne pepper optional
- Salt & pepper to taste
- Scallions chopped, optional for serving
Instructions
- 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).
- Meanwhile, prep your onion, celery, chicken and potatoes.
- Once the bacon is crispy, take it out of the pot and transfer to a paper towel lined plate. Leave the grease in the pot (it adds a ton of flavor).
- Add the onion and celery to the pot and sauté for 5 minutes.
- Stir in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring nearly constantly.
- 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.
- Add in the chicken, corn, cream, potatoes, Italian seasoning, cayenne pepper, and 3/4 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 with the lid slightly open.
- Cook until the potatoes are done (about 15-20 minutes). Stir every so often. The soup will get thicker the longer you cook it.
- Season the soup with salt & pepper as needed. Garnish with the rest of the bacon and chopped scallions if desired.
Notes
- Serves 4-6 depending on portion size.
- Yes, the chicken will cook right in the soup. If you want to use already cooked/rotisserie chicken, add in during the last 5-10 minutes of cooking so it doesn’t dry out too much since it’s already cooked.
- Anywhere around the 1.5-2 pound ballpark will work for the potatoes if you want to weigh them.
- This is a fairly thick soup. If you prefer a thinner consistency, add a splash more broth or water as needed.
- If you’re sensitive to salt, use low-sodium chicken broth.
- 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.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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This was amazing! I added more onions and pepper to give it flavor! My wife doesn’t like chicken or onions and thought this was amazing! Eating it out of bread bowls made it spectacular! I’ll be making this again! Thank you!
Love the bread bowls idea, Jay! So glad you and your wife liked it. 🙂
Delicious & easy! Thank you for posting this recipe…I followed it exactly (I used low sodium chicken broth) and I think it’s perfect.
You’re welcome, Kathy! Thanks for the kind review!
Thank you for posting this recipe! It was just what I was looking for and it turned out beautifully, as you wrote it. So easy and tasty!
You’re welcome, Kathy! We’re so happy you enjoyed it and found it easy. 🙂
Really good. First batch was original recipe. For the rest of them since, I grill a red pepper and add that. Thanks for the great dinners.
Love that idea!! You’re very welcome!
Hi Natasha,
I truly do love your website and I am only rating this a five because I don’t want to bring anything down. I am now in a position where I can’t eat anything with out the serving size as it pertains to the nutrition. So with this recipe, I know it makes “6” servings, depending…. unfortunately, depending isn’t good enough when you need to log everything from sodium to calories. Great site though.
Hi Lee!! Thank you, and I appreciate your candor. I’m sorry that I can’t be more specific (like giving ounces, grams, cups, etc.) for the serving size with most recipes. In this case, I simply put that note to manage expectations. Most people would never measure out a specific amount of soup, and with typical American portion sizes, I wouldn’t be surprised if a pot fed 4 people vs. the 6 it was intended to. The nutrition info is indeed calculated for 6 servings, but I get that measuring out exactly 1/6 of a pot of soup to adhere to that info isn’t exactly easy either.
To give you some more context, I’m not a trained nutritionist or dietician, and if I’m being totally honest, I am reluctant to include any nutritional info period. Why? Because it’s just an estimate (I plug it into the built-in recipe card calculator that pulls from a database), and by the time someone buys their own ingredients (they can vary a lot especially with processed foods), likely measures something imprecisely, and then guesses at what 1/4 or 1/6 of a recipe is, it’ll be way off anyway. That’s ok for readers who are simply wanting a ballpark figure, but I definitely understand that it’s not good enough for people like yourself who have specific health concerns. I also don’t like putting a calorie number because for many people it can trigger negative thoughts and put food into good vs bad categories, which isn’t helpful for most people. Most bloggers now include the nutrition info the way I do because we get pressure from readers who want at least an estimate, and for search engine optimization, having the calories field filled in also helps. With all that said, I would think there is still a way to use my recipes if you’d want to. I think programs out there like My Fitness Pal allow you to have more control over how you enter a recipe. Yes, it’s more cumbersome, but if you’re measuring out everything precisely anyway and use a recipe often, you only have to do it once.
Trying this tonight. I am a diabetic so we are replacing the potatoes with turnips and the bacon for ham since my wife is on a low salt diet for her blood pressure. We will let you know how it comes out after we eat it. We did make this from left over roatissori chicken made on the bbq last night and then we made bone broth from the bones. So should have plenty of wonderful chicken flavor.
Yes… let me know! Hope it goes well, Steve. 🙂
Can you make this a day ahead
Sure. Just reheat over a low heat. Hope you enjoy it! 🙂
I made this and it was really good! Thank you for sharing this recipe! Can it be made ahead and stored in the freezer for later?
I’m so happy you enjoyed it, Sara! 🙂 So, you could freeze it, but sometimes dairy doesn’t freeze great, so the texture may change a little (should still taste fine, though). Be sure to warm it up over a low heat.
This recipe came out delicious! I made a double recipe and it filled my large stock pot to the brim. I used a whole pound of bacon because there were only three extra strips, and meat from a whole rotisserie chicken added at the end. I only used 1/3 cup of flour because I don’t like a really thick soup, and unfortunately it didn’t thicken up much at all – my bad!
I’m so happy it was a hit! 🙂 Yup, with the roux it can be tricky to get the measurements just right when tweaking. You could always add more broth or water to thin next time if you straight double the recipe.
This recipe was fun to put together and it smells delicious. Thank you for all your wonderful recipes!
You’re welcome, Carol! We’re so glad you enjoy them 🙂
when is the cream added?
Step 7.