Chicken and Corn Chowder

Welcome back summer? It is a delightfully warm night tonight, compared to how the last few have been, don't you think? (Well, you in New England. Those of you not sitting pretty in the Northeast, I have no idea how your weather has been. Just pretend you're here!)
I planned this meal a few nights ago when it was chilly! And I mean, it was really brisk. I even had to break out the bunny slippers, and that means business.
So the type of dinner doesn't exactly match with the weather - this is more of a fall/winter stick to your ribs type chowder, but it was delicious none-the-less!

(And if you're pinching pennies like I persistently seem to be, it was also a very inexpensive dinner! Less than $10 per serving!)


So if you're feeling chilly, winter-y, or just corny, sit back and enjoy my chicken and corn chowder!


Ingredients (serves about 8)
Of course there were only four of us. And it more or less all got eaten. But that's my family for you. Shh...

• Bacon (8 strips, chopped roughly)
• 2 small onions (or 1 large. I'm not picky with proportions) diced
• 4 and 1/2 tablespoons flour
• 4 and 1/2 cups milk (we kept it light and used 1% milk, but you can use whole if you want it a little thicker)
• About 22 oz chicken stock
• 4 ears of corn (slice the corn off the cob and keep the corn and cob separate)
• 2 potatoes, peeled and diced
• 3 springs fresh thyme
• 1 rotisserie chicken  (take the chicken breasts and shred them with a fork... or chop them if you want it more chicken noodle soup style)
• Salt and pepper as desired

Directions:

1. Brown the bacon in a large pot, and cook on medium high until brown (maybe 5 minutes or so) 
2. Enjoy the delightful smell of cooking bacon
3. Add the onions and cook until soft (you can also use this time to drain out some bacon fat if you want)
4. Add the flour and stir constantly until the flour turns golden brown (DO NOT BURN THIS! a) smells bad, b) might ruin the dinner)
5. Slowly add the chicken stock, whisking constantly.
6. Whisk in the milk
7. Add the corn COBS (not the corn), the thyme, and the diced potatoes.
8. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring regularly to move the cobs around and add flavor
9. After 15 minutes, remove the cobs and the thyme, and add the corn and the chicken.
10. Heat until the chicken and corn are heated through, maybe about 5 minutes.

Brown the bacon and soften the onions...

After adding the thyme, potatoes, and corn cobs 

Serve with some oyster crackers! (Not those thin stupid hexagonal ones. You need the puffy, New England/Cape Cod oyster crackers!) Add salt and pepper as you like it!

I think I could just eat these for dinner, and be happy.

And there you go, from my kitchen to yours, a yummy, easy, sort of healthy, not so expensive, dinner.

Enjoy!