Healthy Corn Chowder

I'm not sure I've expressed my love for soup enough here yet.  But I love soup, especially for lunches.

Given that I'm gluten free, sandwiches are not usually on my lunch menu.

I often make a large pot of soup and freeze about two portions per container.  This gives me a wide variety of soup options for my lunches. 

I also tend to take advantage of the fact that I wouldn't be feeding the soups to those in my family that have aversions to a wide variety of vegetables.

This recipe is very light and fresh tasting, which lends itself well to a summertime soup.  Preparing it in the summer also give you the opportunity to use the best and freshest corn and vegetables, but quality frozen corn works just as well.

I most often used split breasts for my soups.  It's very economical to filet the breasts from the bone and save the breast for other dishes where I need boneless chicken breasts. I simply take a knife and cut near the bone, removeing a large portion of the breast. Then I add the meaty bone lefovert to make chicken stock and cooked chicken.  You'd be surprised how much meat is left attached to the bone. Plenty enough to use in a soup.

After you've got your chicken and stock you're ready to go.

Ingredients

1 cup chopped onion
1 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup peppers, red, green or yellow
2 sprig fresh thyme
2 sprig rosemary chopped
2 bay leaf
10 cups chicken stock
12 small red potatoes, diced
5 cups chopped, cooked chicken breast
2 chopped zucchini
12 whole mushrooms-stems removed, optional
Six to seven ears of fresh corn
OR
4 cups frozen corn
2 can creamed corn
4 to 6 pieces of bacon, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Use chicken breast bones and remainder chicken from split chicken breast, about 4 large breasts bone pieces.

Boil chicken bones in seasoned water with Mrs Dash. Remove and de-bone chicken and dice. Place in fridge broth to skim fat.

Saute onion, celery, carrots and peppers.

Reheat broth in pot and add dice potatoes and cook in broth with added seasonings.

If using fresh corn, shuck corn and corn from cob and milk the corn. (To milk the corn, run the back side of a knife along the cob, and collect the milky corn that comes off into the pot or in a measuring cup.


Add corn and cook for 5 minutes.

Then use hand held mixer, immersion blender, to puree some of the corn and potatoes right in the pot.  If you don't have one of these just add several cups to a blender and then return to pot.

Add chicken, zucchini, mushrooms if desired, and cook till done.  Top each serving with bacon if desired.

All of the freshness of the vegetables are so wonderful, you hardly miss the cream, butter and flour other recipes use.