It's cold.
It's raining.
It's dark and gray outside.
It's day just calls for a hot, comforting, homemade soup.
And homemade bread.
And since we still have house guests this month and we have found it almost impossible to stick to low carb and certainly impossible to do keto... I'm giving in today and going all the way. A thick, delicious, hearty homemade Potato and Bacon Chowder. It's soup obviously, but so thick and rich and chunks of yummy bacon, potatoes and some onions and celery... oh it's a heavenly chowder.
Yep, it's a blurry photo. Ha ha. But as I always state here on An American Housewife - this is a food and recipe blog. Not a photo blog. It's about the food. Good, real food. Not how great the photos are.
Bacon and Potato Chowder
As usual, I don't measure and don't use precise amounts. I'll give an approximate and basically, use a little more or less depending on what you like. Do taste tests.
2 cups dehydrated hash browns, reconstituted OR about 2-3 potatoes, diced, OR about 8 small little potatoes, diced up
1 cup water to cook potato dices (don't have to use if you are using reconstituted hash browns or about 2-3 cups frozen hashbrowns)
2/3 c bacon crumbles (grab about 6-8 strips)
1 medium onion or about 3 or 4 green onions, diced
1 or 2 stalks celery, diced small
1 can cream of chicken soup (You can make your own homemade version if you refuse to use a canned cream soup. But you know, the homemade version isn't much different ingredient wise!)
1 c sour cream
1 1/4 cup of half and half, cream or whole milk (I opt for half and half or cream... always)
parsley
salt and pepper
optional - onion powder
You can dice your bacon up and then cook it or you can cook it first and then crumble it. If you have 'real' Hormel bacon pieces on hand and no actual bacon... go for it. But I wouldn't use bacon bits (imitation unless I had to. You can, but it won't taste like real bacon). Cook the bacon until done. Add the diced potatoes if you are using them, and the onion and celery. Add the cup of water to the pan (with the bacon and drippings) and cook about 10 minutes until the potatoes are tender.
If you are using hash browns (I use both real, diced potatoes for chunks and hash browns for a nice thick, hearty soup) you can add them with their re-hydrating water once the potatoes/onions/celery are soft.
Now you add the rest of the ingredients and you continue to cook, and stir until heated through. The amount of cream or half and half is going to be relative to your soup/chowder. Figure about 1 1/4 cups and then as it cooks through, especially if you've used hash browns, you might need to add a cup or two more. It's all according to you. How thick do you want it? Taste it too! Salt and pepper to your tastes. I'd say about a teaspoon of salt and 1/8 pepper. Parsley is 1/4 cup dried... more or less.
Just heat through and serve. It's one of those things you can't really get wrong. It tastes good no matter what I think.
I serve with homemade bread - which you can find a ton of recipes for here on An American Housewife - just use the search box to the right or at the top of the page.
