Better then Ever

I went to Mayo clinic last week. Met with my GI and ID doctors. My blood work is coming back better then it has in the last 8 years! Amazing what not running to the bathroom all day can do for a girl. I have also gained about 17 pounds!! EEKK! I just can't help it, I can enjoy eating again! Also I needed the 17 pounds but I better not keep it up or they will have to roll me around the house before too long. :)

I have to make a little apologies about today's recipe. It's heavenly, cozy, sweet, with just enough kick to it to be perfect for a cold rainy day like we are having here today. The downfall is it's not a good Crohnie recipe, as it's heavy on the corn and I know a lot of Crohnie's have trouble with corn.

I adapted this recipe from Add A Pinch's Southern Chicken & Corn Chowder Recipe

Chicken & Sweet Corn Chowder

WHAT I USED:
1Tbs Olive Oil
1 Small onion
3 Chicken breasts
2 Carrots
2 Celery Stalks
2 tsp minced garlic
3 pieces cooked bacon
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tbs flower
4 cans cream style corn
1 can chicken broth
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
Pinch of ground cyan pepper
Pinch of red pepper flakes


What I did

  Over at Add a Pinch Robyn made this on the stove, but of course I threw mine into the crock pot. :) I have a big Hamilton Beach that cooks hot and fast so the 1st thing I did is plug it in and put 1Tbs of olive oil into it. While that was warming up I got out the rest of my ingredients. I chopped the onion up fine in the food processor because the kids won't eat onions if they can see them so I go to sneak them in. Then I dumped those into the slow cooker with the oil & went to work chopping the carrots and celery.

  I liked the look of Robyn's large cut carrots, but a lesson learned, carrots take a long time to cook in the crockpot - use a mandolin and cut them thin, mine were still crunchy when we ate. (We could have let it cook longer but the smell was killing us! We had to eat it now!) I chopped 2/3 of the celery then put the rest into the food processor, again so the kids still got some even if they picked the big chunks out. I dumped this into the crock with the onion and added the 2tsp garlic also. I put the lid on the crock and moved onto the bacon.  

  I fried up the bacon saving the drippings and beings the food processor was already used for this meal I used it again to chop my bacon, saved me from greasy hands. By the time I added the bacon the onions were looking translucent so I dropped in the semi frozen chicken on top of the veggies. (Here is actually where I messed up. I put a full can of chicken broth in at this time also - don't do that! Instead:) Add your cans of cream corn.
 
  Now remember all that yummy goodness in the skillet you fried you bacon in, we just can not let that go to waist. Drop your 3Tsp of flour in there and whisk it until it's good and brown. Slowly whisk in your milk and cream. This gives you a nice thick bacon gravy. I added pepper, thyme, cyan pepper, and the red pepper flakes into the gravy, mixed it well then added the whole skillet full of goodness into my chowder.
 
  This is where you should add you chicken broth - if needed - until your soup is the desired consistency. Set left over broth aside in case your chowder needs more moisture as it cooks. I added my broth first and then my chowder was a little runnier then I like a chowder to be. So learn from my mistakes.
 
  Even with it being thinner then I wanted it & with the crunchy carrots, this chowder was amazing. The whole family gobbled it up!