Potato Ham Chowder
A warm and filling chowder that’s incredibly creamy and rich, perfect for those chilly winter nights!
I hope you’re not getting tired of all these soup recipes I’ve been posting lately. I promise you, once the new year hits, it’ll be salad/quinoa galore here at Damn Delicious but until then, let’s talk soup.
Now I don’t know about you guys but chowders are one of my favorite kind of soups. They’re so incredibly creamy and rich, perfect for those chilly nights sitting in front of a fireplace and slurping on a bowl of soup. Now I don’t actually have a fireplace but a girl can dream, right?
No, but really, this soup is a wonderful way to use up your leftover Christmas ham but if you don’t have a giant 16-lb ham nearby, you can always use a ham steak as well. And don’t forget that crisp crumbled bacon for that added smokiness. After all, bacon is always needed as a garnish, right?
Potato Ham Chowder
Ingredients
- 4 slices Jones Dairy Farm Sliced Bacon, diced
- ¼ cup unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- 1 ½ cups frozen corn kernels
- 2 teaspoons fresh thyme leaves
- 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 3 ½ cups milk, or more, as needed
- 2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 7-ounce package Jones Dairy Ham Steak, diced
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate; set aside.
- Melt butter in a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in corn and thyme until fragrant, about 1-2 minutes.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in potatoes.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes.* Stir in ham, salt and pepper, to taste. If the chowder is too thick, add more milk as needed until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with bacon, if desired.
Notes
Did you make this recipe?
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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by Jones Dairy Farm. All opinions expressed are my own.
I just made creamy potatoe and ham soup and just now sat to check out my emails and happened upon this recipe…..what a coincidence, reading reviews seen the potatoe comments. Just wanted to say my original potatoe soup is called baked potatoe soup in which you bake the potatoes in skin and cool and gently peel off outer skin leaving on alittle of the browned crispier part of the potatoe! I will tell you the extra time is soooooo worth it the texture of the potatoes is so much more pleasant and tastie! I also add some cheddar cheese and half and half. Also start out with chicken broth instead of milk. I garnish with sour cream, bacon & chives yummy yummy yummy!
Mmmm, just made this for my fam. I don’t eat potatoes anymore (nightshade veggie), but took a bite. It’s good! My husband thinks everything needs a little kick, so I added some dried ground jalapeno pepper to it and it’s perfect.
Any way to convert this to the crock pot?
It is very difficult to give exact conversion information to translate a traditional stovetop recipe to be used in a slow cooker without further recipe testing. However, here is an article worth checking out on a possible conversion guide. Hope that helps!
Amazingly easy is an understatement!!! I love quick soups and this is just that…quick. I took the advice of other comments and cooked my potatoes in the microwave while I prepared the rest of the soup. Ten minutes in microwave was perfect timing and I dumped the potatoes into the soup. Simmered for 10 more minutes and viola!! Perfection!!!
Thank you for your great recipes. I love them.
Do you simmer covered or uncovered
Uncovered.
I just made this tonight and it was really good. I added a bit of smoked paprika and a pinch of nutmeg and my husband could not get enough!
My mom made a French version of this. Instead of ham swap it out for tuna. Amazing.
thank for such a quick and easy way to make a creamy chowdah! i used half and half, instead of milk, which made it extra creamy, and a smoked sausage instead of ham. sooooooo good!
Made this chowder after reading the recipe. OMG! Fantastic. The wife, my son and I all loved it. I added a little grated cheese to the top when serving just for a little extra. Very tasty. Thanks for a great recipe.
Why can’t you use your new Dutch oven?
If your new stove is a glass-top stop worrying!
I’ve been using my LaCrusette on my glass top oven for years no problem.
Do you think you could brown the ham a bit with the onions before adding in the liquid and potatoes? Would it hurt to bring the ham to a boil w the potatoes and let it simmer?
Nope – it should be just fine.
This was awesome! I made a couple of minor changes, I added a couple of sprinkles of liquid smoke ontop of my bacon for a bit more flavor, and I finished the soup with green onions & asiago cheese. The whole family loved it (including 2 toddlers). My husband delcared this was easily the best chowder, he had ever tasted.
I absolutely love your site, I’ve made dozens of your recipes, and I’ve never been disappointed by any of them (and I am generally pretty critical of recipes). Thank you!
This is a great recipe! I made it gluten and dairy free. Absolutely spectacular and the family loved it:) It’s so wonderful to find a great recipe I can make allergy friendly. Thanks for sharing, this will be made many times over.
I’d like to make mine gluten free. Did you use cornstarch?
I made this for dinner tonight using 1% milk and topped with bacon and shredded cheddar – delicious, thanks!
I have a quick question. I was debating either making this potato ham chowder or the cauliflower chowder for supper tonight. Is there any reason why I couldn’t just sub the potatoes in this chowder for cauliflower? How much caulilflower would you add instead?
Thanks!
The amount of cauliflower used is really up to you, although I would use about 1 head.
Added cumin and red pepper flakes to this recipe to make it nice and smoky. Delish!
Just made this chowder with 2 very minor changes and those only because I didn’t want to go to store. Used onion powder as no onion, canned (white) corn instead of frozen and this is absolutely yummy. I could eat the whole pot if I had room in my tummy.
Many thanks to you for the recipe. It is so cold here and this just hits the spot on so many levels.
BRAVO!!!
Tried this potato soup for my first time; it was delicious. Didnt have corn, and not able to use onions (husband allergic) so I added sliced anaheim peppers, and peas. I will certainly make this again with the corn too. Thank you for this recipe
This looks delicious and a great way to use my leftover ham this week!
On another note – I found your recipe through a wild-goose chase. I saw a pin on pinterest with your photos, and it looked so good. I clicked to discover it was one of those recipe collecting sites, with a bogus source link. I did a Google image search and found your recipe. It may not bother you that others are taking your content, but if it does, you might want to watermark your photos to make it clear where the content originated. I HATE pinning stuff that doesn’t point back to the original post/content, so I always try to find that and pin from the original site. Here is the link where your recipe is located in case you want to look into it: http://recipeknead.com/potato-ham-chowder/. Anyway, just thought you might like to know.
I can’t wait to try this recipe!
Made it two days in a row since my family loved it! Used leftover Christmas ham and added some garlic salt.