Stir up a batch of my favorite chicken chowder to keep you warm and full all weekend long!
This Chicken Chowder is one of those recipes I find myself making almost once a month once the weather starts to get cold. Besides being so easy to make, there’s just something nostalgic about a warm bowl of soup for dinner as the days get shorter. Plus, who doesn’t love an excuse to dip crusty bread into a bowl of creamy, savory goodness?
The first time I made this soup was December 2014 a few days after Bryan proposed. One of our good friends helped Bry organize the surprise dinner that followed immediately after the proposal. So as a thank you, we had him over for dinner and I made this soup. Man was it so good! In fact, Bry and I loved it so much we easily made it at least four more times that winter.
As with most soups, this recipe is a great way to use up any leftovers in your fridge. In fact, that’s where the cream in the recipe came from. I can’t remember why I had a small carton of leftover light cream, but I figured I replace half of the milk with it, and it added such a wonderful richness that I now buy cream just to make this recipe. The same goes for vegetables. I prefer to use a bag of frozen mixed veggies, but it also works well with any leftover ones you may already have.
To make this a quick dinner, I usually use a rotisserie chicken, but you can also buy raw chicken breasts and just poach or bake them ahead of time.
Now lets get to cream soup vs chowder. Growing up out west, if someone said “chowder” it was assumed they meant clam chowder. Otherwise everything else was a soup. So I initially called this recipe “chicken soup”. However, Bry argued that it is actually a chowder due to having chunks of potato in it. So to settle this debate I went to the food experts. According to Food Network, a chowder is a thick, milk or cream-based soup, that contains chunks of vegetables and/or fish. A cream soup, on the other hand, contains pureed vegetables with no visible chunks. Looks like another win for Bry :/.
Whether you call this a soup or a chowder, I highly recommend making a big batch and inviting friends or family over to share!
So here’s a toast to our first bowl of chowder as now a married, not just engaged, couple!
Get realistic recipes and nutrition tips in your inbox!
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
I’m so glad soup season is here! Or chowder season 😉 I think this qualifies as a chowder – and it looks so hearty and warm and comforting – YUM!
Thanks Kathryn! It is all three of those 🙂
Soup is the BEST fall food. What a sweet memory you have of serving this to a dear friend after becoming engaged 🙂
Thanks Tara! And yes, there’s nothing more comforting than soup and a chilly Fall day 🙂