Bacon Chowder

Pin It This is my moms Bacon Chowder recipe. It was her grandma's Bacon Chowder. But... as kids we didn't really care who came up with the recipe, we just knew we LOVED it.

Mom gave me this recipe at my bridal shower. It has obviously gotten quite a bit of use.

I make it for my family because it is cheap (minus the bacon, but you can get it on sale) and I can throw a lot of leftovers in there. If you are cooking on a LOW budget you will have a lot of leftover potatoes and carrots.

This was the perfect rainy day meal last night. Mmmmmm... so cozy.

The recipe above is for a BIG BATCH as my mom called it, but it really just fed our family of eight growing up. I cut it in half because we can't destroy that kind of food yet.

So here it is:


1 lb hamburger
1/2 lb bacon
1/2 onion
2-3 potatoes
2-3 carrots
1 c. water
bacon grease
flour 1/3 cup
1-1 1/2 quarts milk
pepper
season salt

Brown the meat with the onions. I like to add a little season salt too. When it is done put in a cup of water and let the potatoes and carrots simmer together until they are soft.

Meanwhile, fry bacon in another pan. You can cut the bacon up before or break it up after it is cooked. When it is done throw the bacon in with the simmering veggies.

Save a 1/8 - 1/4 a cup of bacon grease in the pan. Add the flour and about a cup of milk to start. Then whisk, whisk, whisk. You want to get the flour mixed in very well or you will get flour clumps in your soup. Yuck. As the mixture boils it will get thicker and you can add more milk gradually.

It should look like this when you are done. You want a alfredo-like consistency.

Then add it to your hamburger/veggie combo

Add season salt and pepper to taste. 

Bread and soup. You can't beat it. We could eat it every night!