— instructions —

①

Sauté bacon, render out fat.

Heat a large pot over medium heat and add the bacon to begin rendering out all the fat. There’s no need to add any oil to the pot since the bacon will provide the fat. Stir around. After 2 minutes, turn heat back down to low and cook, continuing to render until the bacon is rendered, nicely browned, but not too crispy. Remove bacon from pot.

②

Add onions and celery and sweat out.

Add onions and celery to the same pot and sweat them out on medium heat. Stir around to coat the onions in the bacon fat and cook for about 10 minutes, until it becomes translucent.

③

Deglaze with booze.

Pour in the white wine to deglaze, scraping any bits from the bottom of the pot. Cook until the wine has reduced, leaving the onion moist, but not drowned in liquid.

④

Add butter and flour.

Add flour to the onions in the pot and stir around until onions are well coated. Add the butter and stir around a little more. This is the beginning of your roux that’ll thicken the soup.

⑤

Add half & half, milk, clam juice, broth.

Slowly add milk to the onion and flour mixture, using a whisk to mix everything to smoothen the roux out. Once the mixture comes to a boil, the roux will begin to thicken. When the roux has begun to thicken, add half and half, clam juice, and chicken broth. Continue to whisk to smoothen the soup as you bring this mixture back to a boil.

⑥

Add corn and potatoes, simmer on low-med heat.

When your soup has thickened, add the corn and potatoes. Stir around to combine and cover pot. Turn heat down to low-medium and cook until potatoes are soft.

⑦

Add cod and bacon.

Add in cod and the bacon that you’ve set aside. Cook for a couple more minutes, about 3, or until the cod is cooked through. This won’t take very long. When the cod is done, ladle soup into bowls and garnish with chives and bacon. Congrats! You just made cod chowder.