4
ribs of celery, roughly chopped, celery leaves reserved for serving (about 1 ½ cups)
2-3
carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 -inch thick (about 1 ½ cups)
2-3
yukon gold potatoes, about 1 lb., peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon
salt
2 teaspoons
black pepper
2 cups
whole milk
1 1/2 cups
heavy cream
1 quart
chicken stock
4 cups
shredded chicken (about the amount of meat from one rotisserie chicken)
1 cup
frozen corn
1 cup
frozen peas
Hot sauce, to serve (I prefer Tabasco)
Garlic-Parmesan Oyster Crackers
2 cups
oyster crackers
2 tablespoons
unsalted butter
2
cloves garlic, chopped
2 tablespoons
chopped parsley
1/2 cup
finely grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon
salt
1/4 teaspoon
black pepper
Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
In a large dutch oven, heat butter and olive oil over medium heat. Once the butter has melted, add the flour. Cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes. Add in the onion, celery and carrot. Cook, stirring often, until onions begin to soften, about 5 minutes. Add in the potatoes and stir to combine. Pour in the milk and heavy cream. Stir to combine to ensure there are no lumps and then add the stock. Turn the heat to high and bring to a bubble. Once bubbly, stir in the shredded chicken. Turn the heat to low and let cook, over a low heat, stirring every now and then, for 15 minutes. In the meantime, make the garlic-Parmesan oyster crackers.
Place the oyster crackers in to a small mixing bowl. Set aside.
Melt butter in a large saute pan over medium low heat. Once melted, add the garlic and parsley. Let cook for a minute or just fragrant being careful not to brown the garlic. Pour the warm garlic butter over the oyster crackers. Stir to coat them in butter mixture. Once coated, add in the parmesan cheese, salt and black pepper. Toss to coat and spread them on to the parchment lined sheet pan. Bake in the oven for 5-7 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool.
After 15 minutes, the chowder should thicken up a bit it. Add in the frozen corn and peas and cook for a 5 minutes more.
Ladle the chowder into bowls and top with hot sauce, a handful of garlic-parmesan oyster crackers and some coarsely chopped celery leaves.
Made this last night with a chicken I'd roasted on Monday. Completely forgot to buy anything related to the crackers, so will have to try those another time. I also had completely forgotten we were mostly out of butter (how that happened, I've no idea) and was down to the last dregs of olive oil. So my roux became about 1/3 of a cup of olive with about 1 teaspoon of butter, what was left in the last wrapper. I also omitted the celery, even though I had some, because I really cannot stand the flavor of celery. I followed another reviewer’s suggestion and added fresh thyme, but also added in 4 cloves of garlic. I added in some crushed red pepper flakes and some smoked Spanish paprika. I really like it, hubby ate 2 bowls. Will definitely make it again.
This chowder is delicious—but those garlic Parmesan crackers are off the hook! I will make the whole recipe again for my family (doubling or tripling the crackers) and I’ll make the crackers on their own too :). A couple dashes of hot sauce when serving the soup was an excellent suggestion. I increased the milk to cream ratio just slightly. And used the pre-shredded rotisserie chicken from Costco.
This soup was really delicious - the hot sauce at the end really made it pop. My only changes were to add some garlic and fresh thyme. I used all the heavy cream (because I'm a terrible person), but I bet it would be just as good with less.
I agree about the heavy cream, wow. Would love for Food 52 to show nutritional info for their recipes. Will also try something other than all the heavy cream. Maybe they'll show a substitute for the cream.
You can also make the chowder without heavy cream (and add extra milk/stock) but then serve some cream on the side so people can add richness to their liking.
See what other Food52ers are saying.