What two ingredients must be present for the soup to be called a chowder?

Chowder is a soup with cream or milk mixed with ingredients such as potatoes, sweet corn, smoked haddock, clams and prawns, etc. Some cream-style chowders do not use cream, and are instead prepared using milk and a roux to thicken them.

Why is corn chowder called chowder?

The word chowder is a corruption of the French chaudière (“cauldron”) , and chowder may have originated among Breton fishermen who brought the custom to Newfoundland, whence it spread to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and New England.

What is the difference between potato soup and potato chowder?

Chowder vs. Soup: What's the Difference? While soups can be thin and light, a chowder is characterized by being rich and thick . Like stew, it contains large chunks of meat or seafood and vegetables, notably potatoes.

What are the best potatoes for chowder?

Russets or all-purpose baking potatoes are high in starch and low in moisture. In soups, they will soak up the liquid and lose their shape. This makes them the ideal choice for making creamy soups or thickening a runny soup. Try using Russet potatoes to create the perfect Loaded Potato Soup.

What makes a chowder soup?

A chowder is a rich, hearty soup with seafood or chicken that starts with a base of salt pork or bacon and a mix of vegetables like onions, celery, and potatoes. Most chowders are creamy, but one in particular—Manhattan clam chowder—has a tomato base.

What 2 ingredients are used to thicken the soup?

Add Flour Or Cornstarch You can thicken soup by adding flour, cornstarch, or another starchy substitute. For the best results, never add flour or cornstarch directly to your soup. If you do, it will clump up on top. Instead, ladle a small amount of broth into a separate bowl and let it cool.

What are the 2 basic categories of soup?

Soups are similar to stews, and in some cases there may not be a clear distinction between the two; however, soups generally have more liquid (broth) than stews. In traditional French cuisine, soups are classified into two main groups: clear soups and thick soups .

What are the two types of chowder?

New England clam chowder is thick, creamy, and milky-white. Manhattan clam chowder is tomatoey, brothy, and clear . Both types share a clean, briny, and slightly-sweet flavor thanks to the clams—but that's about it.

Potato Corn Chowder Recipe - Lemon Blossoms (2024)

Home Course

By: Kathy McDaniel

Corn and Potato Chowder

This flavor packed potato corn chowder recipe can be made with fresh or frozen corn. You can enjoy this chowder on cool summer nights while corn is at peak season or in the middle of winter when you need a bowl of comfort food to warm you up from the inside!

Potato Corn Chowder Recipe - Lemon Blossoms (2)

I love easy crock pot soup recipes that can be made with minimal effort. Just like my Creamy Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup, this corn chowder recipe is what I call “dump and go”. Place all the ingredients in your crock pot and go about your day. Dinner will be ready and waiting for you when you need it! How amazing is that?

What is a Chowder?

A chowder is a thick and rich soup usually made with cream, milk and sometimes a roux (a combination of flour and butter). Chowders are often chunky in texture and incredibly creamy. Seafood chowders, corn and potato chowders are among the most popular.

How To Make Your Corn Chowder Thick?

Some chowder recipes use a roux as a base to make the soup thick. In this corn chowder recipe, however, I take advantage of the starch in the potatoes to give this hearty chowder soup a creamy and thick consistency.

To do that, I like to remove some of the potatoes from the soup, mash them and then return them to the crock pot. This method not only provides a thick texture but also lots of creaminess. It also helps reduce the amount of cream you need to use yet still provides richness to the soup.

Potato Corn Chowder Recipe - Lemon Blossoms (5)

How To Make Potato Corn Chowder

I like to use russet potatoes for this chowder recipe because of their creamy texture. Peel and chop the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. They don’t have to be perfect, some of them will be mashed to give this soup a thick consistency without using a roux (flour and butter mixture).
I use frozen corn for convenience but fresh or canned corn works also.
Place the potatoes, corn, garlic, thyme and stock into the slow cooker. Season with salt, pepper and chicken bouillon. The bouillon is optional but I highly recommend it. It adds a lot of extra flavor to this simple corn chowder.
Cover and cook!
When the potatoes are tender, I remove a big scoop of potatoes and mash them with a fork. Then, I stir in the mashed potatoes back into the chowder. This helps thicken the the soup without having to add flour – keeping this creamy chowder recipe gluten free.
Add some heavy cream and cook for an additional 30 minutes. Be ready for the most delicious, soul warming, comforting potato chowder ever!

Potato Corn Chowder Recipe - Lemon Blossoms (6)

Take this slow cooker soup to the next level by topping it with smoky and crispy bacon! I share all my secrets for perfect bacon in this post How To Cook Bacon in the Oven! No mess, crispy bacon every time!

What Kind Of Potatoes Do You Use For Chowder?

Potatoes not only make this chowder rich and delicious, it also helps making this soup extra creamy. I prefer using starchy potatoes to make this tasty soup. Russet potatoes are a great option as well as Idaho potatoes. An all-purpose potato like Yukon Gold can also be used.

Potato Corn Chowder Recipe Tips

If you like a thicker chowder, after adding the cream cook the chowder a little bit longer than the 30 minutes specified in the recipe.

Keep this chowder recipe vegetarian by using vegetable stock.
You can use homemade chicken stock or store bought. Here’s my recipe forBasic Chicken Stock.Homemade is always best and has the best flavor. Make it in big batches and freeze it for later use!
You can use half and half to cut on the calories but you need such a little amount of cream, you might as well use the real deal!

Take A Look At Other Delicious and Easy Soup Recipes

Easy Thai Tom Yum Soup
Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup
Roasted Cauliflower Soup
Stuffed Pepper Soup
Cabbage Roll Soup

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4.33 from 124 reviews

Slow Cooker Potato Corn Chowder

By: Chef Kathy McDaniel

Potato Corn Chowderis creamy, thick, flavorful and easy to make in the slow cooker. This recipe for corn chowder features tender chunks of potato and creamy corn. Top it with crispy bacon for the most delicious chowder recipe!

Prep: 15 minutes minutes

Cook: 4 hours hours

Total Time 4 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

▢ 2 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
▢ 12 ounces frozen corn*
▢ 1 small onion, chopped
▢ 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
▢ 4 sprigs of fresh thyme
▢ 4 ½ cups chicken stock, homemade or store bought
▢ Salt and pepper to taste
▢ 1 teaspoon ground chicken bouillon (optional but highly recommended)
▢ ½ to 1 cup heavy cream
▢ 12 ounces bacon, cooked until crispy and chopped

Instructions

Place the potatoes, the corn, onion, garlic, and thyme in the slow cooker. Pour the chicken broth over. Season generously with salt and pepper. Add the chicken bouillon (if using). Stir well.
Cover and cook on low for 6 – 7 hours or on high for 3 – 4 hours or until the potatoes are tender and cooked through.
Scoop out some of the potatoes onto a plate. Mash the potatoes with a fork and return to the crock pot, stirring them in to thicken the broth.
Stir in heavy cream cover, and cook on low for an additional 30 minutes.
Serve hot garnished with bacon

Video

Chef’s Tips

You can use fresh or canned corn.

Nutrition

Calories: 303kcal (15%)Carbohydrates: 16g (5%)Protein: 9g (18%)Fat: 23g (35%)Saturated Fat: 7g (44%)Cholesterol: 37mg (12%)Sodium: 458mg (20%)Potassium: 313mg (9%)Fiber: 2g (8%)Vitamin A: 55IU (1%)Vitamin C: 7.1mg (9%)Calcium: 16mg (2%)Iron: 0.8mg (4%)

* Please note that all nutrition information are just estimates. Values will vary among brands, so we encourage you to calculate these on your own for most accurate results.

Course:Dinner, Slow Cooker, Soup

Cuisine:American

Keyword:crock pot corn chowder, POTATO CORN CHOWDER

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Reader Interactions

Leave a Review!

Lauren says
Posted on 11/15 at 7:41PM

Was excited to try this recipe with so many great reviews. Followed recipe as written. Unfortunately, we didn’t enjoy this recipe. Chowder was very thin, no matter how many potatoes I smashed. Also, lacked tremendously in flavor; I had to add several different seasonings
Reply
- Kathy says
  Posted on 11/19 at 11:00AM
  
  Lauren, I am sorry you didn’t enjoy this recipe. We haven’t received negative comments about this recipe before. I hope you enjoy other recipes from our site. xo
  Reply
Jada says
Posted on 3/24 at 4:40PM

To enhance the flavor everyone should try adding a little bit of fresh dill weed and a couple small pads of Irish butter! Fresh garlic and fresh corn makes it the best!
Reply
Stacey says
Posted on 1/20 at 2:16PM

Jamie- if you’re not vegetarian, i always add cooked diced ham to mine
Reply
Lesley Laybolt says
Posted on 1/15 at 10:03PM

I’ve been making your recipe for a few years now, and it always turns out to be delicious! Although, I tend to experiment with every recipe I try, and it’s never the same way twice. Tonight I added a little leftover local peach wine, Turkey bacon done extra crispy in the air fryer, some frozen, chopped, fully cooked chicken breast, two tablespoons of minced garlic, and baby carrots. I also used 18% cream, which normally I don’t have on hand. It’s almost ready. Can’t wait until tomorrow for the taste test.
Reply
- Kathy says
  Posted on 1/21 at 1:03PM
  
  Thank you so much Lesley! I love when people make the recipe as written at least once! After that, I always love to hear the explosion of creativity everyone has. Releasing that inner Julia Child is my dream for anyone that follows my blog!! Thank you.
  Reply
Jamie Ferguson says
Posted on 1/20 at 5:40PM

We saw this recipe on Facebook and thought it would be delicious.
Prepared it step by step exactly as shown.
Unfortunately the end result seemed to lack in flavour and was not as thick as what I was hoping for.
I cannot, for the life of me, figure out how to improve it in any way as far as flavour goes.
We used garlic from our garden, corn shucked from cobs that had been blanched in the fall and nice looking potatoes from the grocer. Chicken stock was also from the grocer.
Maybe the cream was to fresh? Not sure if that matters.
Next we are going to try the hot & sour soup on your page. I love Thai.
Ingredients will be hard to get so not sure when I will make it. Soon enough though n
Reply
- Kathy says
  Posted on 1/24 at 4:53PM
  
  Hi Jamie, I am sorry you didn’t like this soup as much as we do. We make it creamy by smashing some of the potatoes. Half and half or heavy cream helps with creaminess also.
  Reply

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