Bacon-Chicken-Corn-Chowder

This is one of my absolute favorite dishes. My mom made it for me twice and I've just adapted it somewhat. It is also my boss's favorite dish that I make. It's great to make for larger gatherings because you can make it in large quantities. You may have noticed, that I only cook for armies. It might actually be more necessary to adapt it for smaller quantities. It is also easy to freeze.

Anyway, time to get started. These are the ingredients you'll need.

2 cartons of chicken broth (I used two 1-Liter tetra packs, I prefer this brand as it's local and organic)
Heavy whipping cream (I used about a pint and a half)
1 bag frozen corn (I use the slightly larger mediumish sized one)
1 bag frozen hash browns cubed (not seasoned - they are just so much easier and taste just as good)
1 2 lbs bag of fresh carrots
1 bag celery (it's like a head of celery)
Chicken (my amount was just under 3 lbs. I used skinless boneless chicken thighs. Chicken breasts work fine and I used them for this recipe regularly, but the chicken thighs have a bit more flavor.)
Bacon
Salt
Pepper
Italian seasoning
Chicken or vegetable broth cubes (I used two this time)
Soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
Maggi seasoning if you have it

And there's one more optional ingredient:

White wine to deglaze your pot and add concentrated flavor.

So there are different ways you can do this.
I tend to peel my carrots, but it's not necessary if you scrub them very well. Most of the vitamins are right under the skin, I just don't like the texture that much.

Now chop them up into pieces. At the bottom half where they are skinnier I just cut them into coin pieces. The top half that is thicker I tend to split down the center and then cut them into half moon pieces

Now toss them in a bowl and reserve.

Next up is the celery. Make sure you rinse it really well. At the base where they connect to the roots dirt will accumulate and be pretty resistant to cleaning off. So take the head apart and clean the stalks individually.

Cut off the bases and tips. You can include the greenery (I.a. the leaves, they taste good, but can get wilted really fast, so it's a matter of preferences yet again.) I cut them as they are for the most part they automatically make the half moon shapes, but at the base where they are thicker I sometimes cut a slice half way through like this, so it halves the size:

Now chop them up. For some reason chopping celery is immensely satisfying to me. Maybe it's the crunch and resistance, but not too much resistance. Regardless, I love it!

Put the chopped up celery with your carrots. (You don't really need a pic for this, but I just like the colors, so fresh and healthy looking, so you get one anyway.)

Now it's time to chop up your bacon. You could do this first, but I like having my veggies ready. If you're great at time management you can do these two steps reversed.

I just cut it into thin strips. You can also use the weedwacker bacon I wrote about in my recipe for Bacon Pinwheels.

Begin rendering the bacon in the pot you are planing to use for the soup. In the past I've used my various dutch oven pots, but my mom picked up this fabulous stock pot for us after our wedding. It's perfect for my chowder.

While the bacon is rendering, I cut up my chicken. You will notice that I am using dark chicken meat. I used skinless, boneless chicken thighs this time. You can absolutely use chicken breasts, which I do most of the time, but the chicken thighs are more flavorful, however also more fatty. So if you are on a diet stick with chicken breasts. Well, to be honest, diet food this soup is not, it has tons of heavy whipping cream in it. But great for a warm, cozy, fall night where you're living in chunky sweaters. You can work out in spring. ^^

The reason you're rendering the bacon is because this will be the base fat for everything in the soup. You could use olive oil or any other oil instead of the bacon and the bacon fat. I like the bacon fat because it adds a whole new level of flavor. Multidimensionality.
Once the bacon has been rendered you can add your carrots and celery.

Toss them so they are all coated in the grease and sautee them.

Now I'm adding the two bouillon cubes. I prefer Knorr. They're a great brand and always available at my local Winco. I used to use them when I lived in Germany too. If you have a Winco here's an insider tip. Check out the Hispanic foods section. They have the same chicken bouillon for a cheaper price and a larger quantity. It's worth a gander.

If you use them it goes quite a bit faster if you also break them up with your wooden stirring spoon.

Now I use a lot of white wine to deglaze my pot. If you are omitting the wine, you can use the broth to deglaze your pan.

I used about half a bottle.

Cook it down until almost all of the wine has evaporated. Then add your chicken and cook it up some.

Add a bunch of your Italian seasoning. (Sorry for the blurry pictures, the steam really interferes with my picture taking process!)

Add the broth to your pot.

Add your corn, potatoes, more Italian seasoning, pepper, and some salt. Now add liberal splashes of the worcestershire sauce, the soy sauce, and the Maggi.

Last but not least, add a bunch of cream, I added about a pint and a half of heavy whipping cream.

I usually let it simmer for a good long time to ensure everything is fully cooked, especially since I usually make it in advance of when I want to eat it.
Serve it on its own, or with this delicious No knead artisan style bread.

My husbands not a huge fan of broth and likes his soups really chunky, so that's usually how I make them.

I hope you enjoy the food. I'd love to get some feedback on what you like and what not. Please feel free to leave me a comment or shoot me an email. I'm interested in any kind of feedback, whether constructive criticism or praise which is always nice too. :)