Country Chowder
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This is it! Today we have our first, honest to goodness chilly day. There is a glorious crisp wind blowing and I sent both of my kids off to school wearing jackets. I dug back in the far recesses of my closet and came out with a sweatshirt and a comfy pair of jeans that haven’t seen daylight for months. As soon as I put them on we all just sighed happily together. AHHH Fall
So now we need a warm and soothing meal to go along with it. Today’s recipe is one I have named Country Chowder. I took some of my favorite flavors and cooked them up together in a rich and creamy broth filled with flavor. This is a hearty meal that just makes your stomach happy and it’s even better the next day!
For the chowder you’ll need: Heavy Cream, frozen pepper and onion blend*, Corn, potatoes, carrots, a roll of breakfast sausage*, chopped turnip greens*, and some form of chicken broth as a cooking base*.
Substitutions are a plenty on this recipe!
*Pepper and Onion Blend – I use frozen because a bag is just a dollar and I get three colors of bell pepper strips as well as onions so this saves money and gives me variety. If you’d rather use fresh, just chop up 1/2 an onion and 1 bell pepper (any color) as a substitute.
*Breakfast Sausage – if you want a slightly spicier soup, use hot breakfast pork sausage. I’m using mild. You could also use Italian sausage and substitute the dried Parsley with dried Italian seasoning for a different flavor direction.
*Turnip Greens – Spinach will work just as well or you can omit the greens entirely.
*Chicken Broth – I’m using a chicken base paste which makes 2 quarts of broth with just 1 1/2 tablespoons of base! I often use things like this or bouillon cubes to save money and storage space. I also like that I can make my broth more concentrated if I want for even more flavor. However, you can use actual chicken broth if you like, or any of the things I use. Exact quantities are in the recipe at the end of this post.
Don’t like carrots or corn? Leave ‘em out! Don’t have russet potatoes? use red! Don’t have heavy cream? Heavy cream is best but evaporated milk and even whole milk will work as a substitution.
Other things you’ll need:
Potato flakes, Garlic Powder, Dried Parsley, Crushed Red Pepper Flakes, Salt, and Pepper.
My potato flakes aren’t pictured because I took these pictures early in the morning and as it turns out, potato flakes aren’t that into the morning Use your imagination. They are white and look like flakes.
Potato flakes are the handiest things to use as thickeners in soups and stews. I love them in my mama’s chicken stew and they are even part of the crust in my Taco Casserole. I even use them to feed my sourdough starter! The only thing I don’t use potato flakes for is making mashed potatoes
Peel carrots and wash potatoes, then slice carrots and cut potatoes into cubes.
I like to leave the skin on my potatoes but you can peel it off if you prefer.
Another shortcut is to just use a bag of frozen cubed hash browns and even frozen carrots!
Okay this is my chicken broth all assembled. Add your potatoes, carrots, and onions.
See? Put this over medium high heat and bring it to a light boil, stirring every now and then, while you prepare sausage.
While that is cooking, chop up and brown sausage in a large skillet over medium high heat until it is fully cooked and no longer pink in the center.
When your sausage is cooked, push it to the side of the pan and add in frozen pepper and onion blend.
I love this frozen pepper and onion blend!
Let that cook for a few minutes, stirring every now and then, until completely thawed.
Once it’s thawed, stir it up good and continue cooking until tender, three or four more minutes.
Add that to your pot.
If your potatoes and carrots aren’t tender by this time, it’s okay, they’ll keep cooking.
Add in turnip greens ….
…and all seasonings and stir well.
Bring it to a light boil once again and let simmer for fifteen more minutes.
My salt is camouflaged in this photo but it is in the bottom right corner.
Pour in cream…
and add potato flakes.
Stir well and cook five to ten minutes more.
Serve hot with a good hearty bread.
Even better the next day!
Ingredients
- 8 cups chicken broth (see post on economical ways to get this)
- 1 pound mild or spicy pork breakfast sausage
- 4 Russet Potatoes, washed and cubed with skins on
- 2 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
- 12 ounce bag frozen pepper and onion blend - (or 1/2 cup diced onion & 1 diced bell pepper)
- 2 cups corn
- 2 cups chopped turnip greens (fresh or frozen, can substitute spinach)
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 1 cup instant potato flakes
- 1 tablespoon dried parsley
- 1+1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper (Go easy here if you use hot sausage)
Instructions
- Place chicken broth in a large stock pot over medium high heat. Add potatoes, carrots, and corn.
- In a large skillet also over medium high heat, chop up and brown sausage until fully cooked and no longer pink in the center. Move sausage to side of the skillet and add in frozen pepper blend to the other side. Cook for three to four minutes, or until fully thawed.
- Stir together sausage and pepper blend and cook for another three or four minutes before adding to stock pot. Stir well.
- Add in turnip greens and all other seasonings and bring to a gentle boil.
- Allow to simmer fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Pour in cream and add potato flakes. Stir well. Simmer five to ten minutes more.
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It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel.”
~Harold Kushner
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Posted by Christy Jordan
on Sep 19 2012. Filed under Main Course, Soups and Stews.
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Sounds delish!
Thank you so much Meghan! I am about to sit down to a bowl of it now
Hope you’re having a great day!
Gratefully,
Christy
Christy, this is 5 stars!! Thank you so much. Of course I messed with it a little by adding mushrooms and a container of prechopped celery onion and carrots, and some seasoned garlic salt, but the rest was yours and is one of the best soups/stews I’ve ever eaten. You are terrific!!!
Thank you, Christy for a wonderful recipe. I made this tonight and just downed the warm tasty goodness! What’s absolutely fabulous about this one is that every cook can easily keep the spirit of the basics and still make it her/his own. Thanks for encouraging everyone to do that! My subtle changes were using two boxes of chicken stock, used red, orange and green organic bell peppers plus a smaller whole onion, organic fresh spinach, drained a can of sweet kernal corn, and left out the carrots and red pepper flakes. It’s like WOW in my mouth. My husband added hot sauce to his bowl to make up for the heat. It was remarkable and one that goes into the file of “keepers”. Yummy in the tummy!
I am so glad to hear that you liked it Adrienne!!! And I love that you changed it up and made it your own!!
We are finally getting cooler weather here in New Mexico so this is on the plans for the weekend. It is so different and so like my grandmother made. Thank you.
Oh Martha, I bet you had a wonderful grandmother! I wish I could have tasted her delicious cooking!
I can’t handle the heavier stuff, (potato flakes and cream). What can I do? Is it a totally different dish without those two ingredients?
Nope! Just leave em out and call it soup! It’ll be fine!
Sounds soooo good! Have you ever tried it with hamburger instead of sausage?
I haven’t but it would work just fine! You might want to taste it and up the seasonings a little bit because it gets a lot of flavor from the already-seasoned sausage. I love using ground beef in things!
Sounds like dinner tonight! I have everything except for the cream, any idea if you could substitute it with canned milk?
You sure can! I talk about that in the post right beneath the first ingredients picture.
Enjoy!
Mmmmm, definitely soup weather! We took a family vote last night, fall won out as the favorite season by a landslide! : )
cant wait to try this, it really looks good.
Looks so yummy and I love the floors!
Mmmm, I can see it now with a nice hot buttered crusty piece of cornbread baked in a cast iron skillet.
Wow, sounds/looks absolutely delicious. Can’t wait to make it along with the Zucchini Bread or a delicious Sour Dough Bread. YUM for sure!
Thanks for these delicious recipes… Have a great Wednesday! ;D)
OH BTW…..LOVE YOUR NEW FLOOR! Gorgeous!
I made a chowder that is similar with veggies. This looks so tasty. I saved it. Thanks for posting.
Linda
Will definately be trying this recipe as soon as we get some cool weather here on the TX Gulf coast. The only thing I will change is I will be using collard greens instead of turnip, since I don’t like those. I may even stir in just a little bit of Cheez Whiz to make it even creamier.
Yum!! This is Country, alrighty then! Love it and cooler here, too! “Mighty fine!!”, my PawPaw would have said! He really liked dishes like this as did my Grandpa! Thanks!
Hi just wondered if you can use frozen spinch and leave out the turnip greens? Thank for the awesome recipe.. TeeJay
It is 86 degrees in Jacksonville, FL but one day it will be cool enough to make this. My husband loves sausage and anything with heavy cream in it, so it will be a fun new recipe to try (around the end of October-maybe!).
Christy you have some of the most delish recipes i have ever eaten including your chicken stew which was out of this world and i bet this one is right up there on that list. I dont know where you come up with these fine recipes but keep them coming as they are great and so r you.
a very devoted fan
This will be on the menu next week as I heard today the highs will only be 70′s…Fall is coming on too soon. This chowder looks FAB and I am sure it will taste every bite as good as your telling about it. And the floors are beautiful too! I’d take a pic there too!
Hi Christy, what did you use to chop up on your sausage? I have never seen that gadget you were using.
It looks lije a gismo I have from Pampered Chef…LOVE their amazing stuff!
I’m not Christy but I believe that is the Mix and Chop from Pampered Chef. Hope that helps!
I have one of them, too, and it works really well to chop up ground meats when you are cooking it. I got it someplace on line or from Publishers Clearing House or something like that. I love gadgets. Have to put together a large cabinet to just put my small appliances in. This is in a bottom drawer as don’t use it all the time, but it works great when needed. I wish I could tell exactly where I got mine or what it is called. I got it from a catalog or a place like that.
LOVE these cooler days and your chowder sounds RIGHT ON! I’ll be trying this soon. I also love the frozen onion and pepper blends and use them often. They’re more economical than fresh, and of course the convenience is a no-brainer. Just one comment, though, Christy, about instant p potatoes;
I’ve been holding this in for a while, so here goes: I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now and this just seems like the time. I really don’t like instant potatoes, except for one kind: IDAHOAN (brand) ROASTED GARLIC (flavor). They’re at my Walmart in 4-oz., 4 (1/2 cup) servings. They have other flavors but to me this is THE BEST! A little pricey at about $1 per pkg but are perfectly seasoned (to me) and what a time-saver! Christy, wish I could give you a couple of packs to try (I keep them on hand) to try cause I know it’s hard for me to get somethin’ I haven’t tried but honey I can just about guarantee you’ll like them! And they do NOT TASTE LIKE INSTANT to me; in fact they taste HOMEMADE to me.
Christy, your new floor is as pretty as a speckled puppy! I so look forward to your posts and recipes — you really brighten up my day! Also, I’m hooked on Beat the Chefs now — such fun! Thanks for all you do!
I am so ready for cooler weather down here Christy! We got a little break on that last cold front & then it got REAL hot again. You know what they say, it’s not the heat, it’s the humidity! We just started cooling off today again with this last cold front that moved through – was a BEAUTIFUL day. Our cool is about 85 though, so no sweaters or jackets just yet, but at least it’s better than it has been. Your soup sounds real nice too – I’m ready to start souping it up myself!!
This sounds great I will have to try it. I love making soups and have a few I’ve created myself. I’ve never seen the frozen pepper and onion blend but I will have to look for that! I usually make my own. I look for the bell peppers when they have them on sale or they are marked down and I dice them up along with some onions and put them in a big zip lock baggie in my freezer. I use them in lots of soups and meat dishes, its handy!
Soup recipe sounds perfect for this weekend. It will go great with your dutch oven bread recipe. I made that last night and the whole family loved it. They want me to make bread bowls for soup with that bread recipe. I think I could get two bowls made out of each batch of dough! Sounds like a perfect blend of recipes!
I even bought the containers that you recommended from Sam’s Club. I love them. Perfect for the dough. Oh, and your new floors are amazing
We had your chicken stew for supper my husband sure did enjoy. This one will make our menu soon. Thanks so much for the great comfort food.
I am so glad to hear that you enjoyed the Chicken Stew Bonnie, I think you are going to love the Country Chowder!
This sounds really good, and am going to try it with a few changes. We are vegitarians, so will leave out the meat. Also need to tone down on the heavy cream. I’m on a strict diet, but still make a lot of your recipes as long as I can make them healthier for me. So far I have been pleased with everything I have tried. Wish me luck on this one.
Good Luck Judy!!! I hope it turns out great for you!
Christy,
Here I was today out in the heat 102 my AC in my car not working and you talking about how cool it was there today I am just heart broken..lol..oh well guess thats what I get for moving to Phoenix. Your recipe for Country Chowder sounds really good but I probably won’t be making it till it gets a little cooler here maybe around January.
Oh my goodness Melanie, I am so sorry you are still in the middle of a heat wave! We had really high temperatures this summer and are so glad it is finally cooling off around these parts. I hope you get a breath of cool air soon.
I am making this today!!! It looks so delish!!!! I can’t wait to try it!!
I hope you enjoy it Camisha!! Thank you so much for trying it and I can’t wait to hear what you think.
Replying to the pumpkin muffins. Those are delicious. The muffins are so moist and they just have to be healthy because of the pumpkin. Anyway, they are wonderful to have on hand and to eat.
Yumm!! Will try this soon. I think my boys will love it! I love Fall and good soups are just perfect for Fall weather. I am happy to get this recipe!
I was thinking about your upcoming 2nd cookbook. I am getting excited and already planning that my family and friends that must have one, too!! Seeing you on tv each week makes it even more exciting!!
Thanks for the recipe,Pam
I hope you enjoy the recipe Pam! I really hope you like the cookbook once it comes out, but I think you will!!
You mentioned that you use potatoe flakes for your sourdough starter. Have you posted that? If not will you please.
M going to try to get it up soon as I have time to photograph making it from scratch. Stay tuned and thank you!
I’m so anxious to try it I think I’ll make it tomorrow. It’s cooler but not really cool yet in Mississippi but I can always turn the a.c. to 65 degrees and pretend it’s fall. LOL. We can enjoy it while I’m embarrassing my husband and son cheering for the LSU Tigers against the Auburn Tigers tomorrow. LOL
Christy,
Love your site! Can’t wait to try this recipe. Can it be adapted for a slow cooker?
OMG! My husband and I just spent the last three night enjoying this chowder. It’s the best. He gave me the green light to make lots more. It makes a huge amount so it did take us awhile to eat every last drop. What wonderful veggies. We don’t have mustard green here in this part of the NW so I supplied some fresh spinach in lieu. We still have fresh corn we can buy so some of that went it. And just because your recipes are so very special, I ask the butcher to give me a pound of his special pork sausage meat. Just wished I had made some biscuits to go with dinner or some cornbread. Thank you so much.
Hi Christy,
I have potato beads, not flakes. Will they work? This looks sooo good!
I’m not sure what a potato bead is and I’m curious! If you can make mashed potatoes from then they’ll work fine. You can also leave them out entirely and your soup just won’t be as thick.
This looks very good and hardy. Will be trying it soon. Love the floors. Is it a laminate or real wood? I’m in the market for new flooring for my great room. Seriously considering wood look ceramic tile that will hold up to dog claws. Can you tell me brand you chose?
This looks yummy! I love your recipes, they are always seem so simple and easy but taste wonderful! I was wondering if you could substitute so frozen creamed spinach? I don’t have any greens frozen or otherwise except the creamed spinach…lol I’m lazy and don’t want to go to the store but really would like to have the greens in instead of leaving out entirely.
I love this soup. We eat vegetarian so I used veg. stock, Morning star sausage patties (chopped) and a can of coconut milk. This is a 5 star soup. I’m going to have to ask my store to carry the frozen pepper and onion blend. I’m so happy we tried it. I will cook it over and over.
Isn’t Morning star sausage meat? if not, how is that? Did you use coconut milk instead of the heavy cream? I have some friends who are vegetarian as well. I am trying to do more veggie meals but haven’t found veggie patties we liked. I have made my own turkey sausage as my husband is a diabetic but he can have small amounts. Potatoes are a potassium prolem except in small amounts.
I had my husband get the ingredients again tonight and checked the package. You got me wondering. Morning Star Sausage is a vegetable based sausage. It looks like soy based from the ingredients. So no there’s no meat in it. It’s an 8 ounce package and I don’ t think it needs more than that. I would skip the sausage all together but I wouldn’t know where to begin adding spices to make up for it.
Yes, I used a can of coconut milk instead of the cream. I TRY to stay away from cholesterol.
My twin sister made this recipe first and said it was fantastic, so I made this chowder on Saturday afternoon and my family LOVED it! I made an extra large batch so we would have leftovers, however, the leftover chowder disappeared so fast that I didn’t even get another bowl! I pulled out my bread machine and made a loaf of country white bread to go with it, and your pineapple cobbler for dessert. Everyone raved about the meal! Thanks, Christy!
Cannot wait to try, looks like pure comfort food. Think I may try Kale for the greens, although I love them all. And of course mild JImmy Dean sausage!
Made this tonight. OH MY ~ DELICIOUS!!!!
On the stove now
. My son is excited – he got to help cut up the veggies and cook the sausage! I told him we had to wait til tomorrow to eat it, lol. Today it’s 86, tomorrow will be in the 60′s!!
Thanks Christy!!
Made this tonight and Oh my goodness this soup is great!! Being in Central Florida I could not wait for the cooler weather to make this. Even though its in the 80′s today I couldn’t resist this dish. My family and I were gobbling this down. I forgot to get bread to go with so I had cheese topped Texas toast in the freezer and it was great. Definitely my new go to soup. It cooked up so quick and easy. Thank you Christy!
What a cozy, fall meal! I love things like this to warm me up as the temperature drops! I’m loving this weather, too.
Blessings,
Leslie
Blessings to you Leslie! I hope you enjoy the Country Chowder…and the cool weather!
This looks so fantastic that I wish I had some now. I may wait another month as it is still hot here in So. FL, but I have to remember this. I love soups. This one looks good. Not sure how I’ll like the turnip greens, though I love to eat them by themselves but my spouse isn’t enthused by them, but he does like spinach. I hate to change the recipe though until I try it at least once as it looks so very good. Do you have a total calorie count and sodium count? Those are both important to us. Thanks.
Hi there! We got this recipe from a friend of ours who is gluten-intolerant and also keeps vegetarian — she adapted this recipe for herself and her household (subbed in TVP+spices for the sausage) and it was a HUGE hit. It looked so delicious that I asked her for the recipe, and she sent us here.
My partner and I made this last night for his birthday, and it turned out wonderful, with lots of leftovers! In fact, he’s heating up a big bowl for lunch right now.
We keep the pepper-and-onion blend on hand all the time — such a great deal! — and we used canned diced potatoes and canned corn, as well as frozen chopped spinach, since we had that on hand. (And omitted the carrots…I’m mildly allergic.
)
I may have measured our chicken stock wrong and put too much in (we had homemade in the freezer that needed using), because our soup took nearly three cups of potato flakes to thicken up to “chowder” consistency! No matter, though, and an easy fix.
Thanks again, and I’ll be browsing through your other recipes! Your “Southern Sayings” post had me rolling, reading through the comments.
Welcome to Southern Plate Nebet!!! Tell your friend I said thank you so much for sending you over! I am so glad you enjoyed the recipe and I look forward to seeing you around more!!
This sounds so yummy! I am making it today. Perfect for a high of 63 degrees. I am reacquainting myself to your site today and am laughing out loud at some of your stories! It’s been good for my soul…thank you!
Christy, I just made this and it’s some count! (as my family says ’round here.) Perfect for this cool Alabama high school football night. Oh yeah, I didn’t have any heavy cream, so I added a block of cream cheese which I found scrounging around the deep freeze looking for corn and bell peppers. I don’t know it it would have been any better with the heavy cream. Now if I can just get somebody to run to Wal-Mart and buy some bread.
This looks awesome and with cooler weather blowing in it’s time for soups & chowders. Will make this soon along with jalapeno corn bread thin and crispy. I keep “Glory” brand turnip greens on hand and would be delish in this recipe.
Can’t wait to try.
Oh, yes your new floor looks fantastic too!
Thanks for all the good recipes.
I need to report I’ve made Country Chowder twice since my last post. First time I used regular sausage but second time I used the hot. It was not hot at all. Just right. I did use the canned “Glory” brand of turnip greens drained and oh so good. Took the second making to covered dish @ the church and didn’t bring a drop home. This is a keeper!!
Made this today and it is just perfect for a cool day in south Georgia! And it makes a lot, so I’m freezing some in serving size containers for those days I need a chowder fix. Love it!