Recipe Divulge

A nice thing about being unemployed is that I get to do some things that I have not had the time to do while I was employed and ALWAYS working - I can cook!

This weekend Tina, the lady that is kind enough to let me stay in her home, was going to have her family over for dinner.  She's always making them huge and extravagant dinners.  So, I said I could help this time, especially since they were going to spend the evening with their mother.  I completely spaced that Tina and her family were going to see her mom, so I was working to have dinner ready around 5:30-6:00 pm.  I was taking my time and just really enjoying being back in my element.  Then I realized that dinner would not be until around 8:00 pm.  Yeah, felt really smart.

But, I came up with my own mix of a chicken and corn chowder, and it was REALLY good!  I love experimenting and sad to say things don't always work out, but glad this did!!!!  My sister Jamie and I were texting all night about different recipes we were working on and promised her my recipe, which I did not really have and had to rethink everything that I did.  So, here goes:

Chicken and Corn and BACON Soup (yeah, that's right, bacon!)

6 lbs chicken (yeah, it was a big batch I made)
1 stalk celery
1 carrot
1 onion
2 sprigs thyme

I lightly sautéed the veggies then added the raw chicken and covered it with about 5 cups of water and poached the chicken in the mirepoix to make a stock.  If you are using just chicken, and not chicken on the bones, add a little of chicken base/stock to the pot (more than just broth).  This was about 10-20 minutes until the chicken was fully cooked. 

Take the chicken out of the stock pot and cut up into bite sized pieces.  Remove the stock and set aside - will be used again later.

While the chicken is cooking, chop up some veggies!  (I did everything as a small dice)

5 russet potatoes
5 stalks of celery
1  red onion
2 red peppers (because I do not like the taste of green peppers)
8 ears of corn or 2 bags of frozen corn
5 carrots

Take about 1/2 lbs of bacon and fry in your stock pot.  Fry until the bacon is crispy and the fat has been rendered.  Remove the bacon and slice into bite sized pieces.  Save, because this will be used again later.

In the bacon fat at the bottom of the pot, sauté the celery and onions until the onions are almost caramelized.  Add in the rest of the veggies and sauté until veggies are starting to soften.  I am weird, I cook by smell, so I waited until I could smell the veggies as I occasionally stirred them to make sure they  were not burning on the bottom of the pan.

Add in apx 5-6 cups of the broth and the leaves from 2-3 more sprigs of thyme.  Boil the soup until the veggies are finished cooking.  Add in the chicken and bacon and add 2-3 cups of cream and continue to boil for a few more minutes.  At this point you can serve as a soup or add a roux to thicken the soup to make it more chowder like.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Garnish with thyme.

Either way, the soup is very colorful, hardy, and tastes great.  I also like how aromatic the soup is.  I paired the soup up with some crescent rolls and for dessert served molten chocolate lava cakes and vanilla bean ice cream. I think my dress size went up due to how much I had to eat!

James, you'll have to tell me how this works out for you, if you decide to try it out!