New England Chicken Chowder

We weren't exaggerating in the last post when we said Mel marks nearly every other page of Rachael Ray Every Day magazines with cool recipes to try.  Be prepared for A LOT of home cooking entries while this subscription lasts!

Next up from the magazine pages:  New England CHICKEN Chowder.  New England Clam Chowder has always been one of Mel's favorite soups, but she eats it sparingly since the store-bought versions tend to be extremely unhealthy (due to the cream and salt).  While we wouldn't necessarily call this recipe healthy (there's still the cream and then the interesting addition of bacon), making something at home gives you the advantage of tweaking to make splurge ingredients a bit less indulgent. 

Due to some lackluster cookware we need to replace, the hardest part of this recipe wound up being getting the bacon crispy without burning it .  After that, it was pretty smooth sailing.  Mel hates cutting raw chicken because she just keeps thinking "salmonella" and "who wants to have to clean this sink/knife after cooking" and "not enough bleach in the world" - not really a fun way to get in the chef zone.  So rather than chopping up the thighs first, we threw them in the pot whole and let them simmer in the stock for a while.  Once they seemed cooked sufficiently (about 20-30 minutes), we took them out, chunked them and returned them to the pot at the same time as adding the cream/corn puree.  Then we just let the soup simmer on the stove a bit longer than called for in the recipe to let the flavors sink in.  Much less hassle and no impact on flavor whatsoever.  We also added a bag of frozen pearl onions to cut the salt a bit (and because we like pearl onions).  

We fell in love with this soup after the first bite.  And not just because of the bacon!  It really does taste so close to New England Clam Chowder, yet the consistency and flavor of the chicken gives the old classic a nice spin.  Will make this again for sure.