Low-fat Chicken-Corn Chowder Recipe

I've been craving Southwest flavors lately. I guess it's the winter doldrums that leaves me with a need for "bright" food that my eyes and mouth can feast on. I made this concoction up since I wanted a nice hearty soup while trying to fit my hearty bottom into my pants. If you're vegan you could omit the chicken and use fakin' bacon with great results. I have to big-up Mr. T for help me perfect the seasoning and balance of the soup. It's darn delicious if I do say so myself!

Low-fat Chipotle Chicken-Corn Chowder
Ingredients
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 tsp chipotle sauce
1 1/2 tsp. Goya light seasoning salt
pinch of cumin
1 tsp garlic powder


4-5 strips of turkey bacon


Cooking spray
1 mini red pepper
1 mini yellow pepper
1/2 green pepper
1 medium onion
3 cloves of garlic
1 24 oz. bag of frozen corn
2-3 large potatoes, diced (or 4 small/medium)
6 cups water
3-4 chicken or vegetable bouillon cubes
1 tbs. flour
1-2 tbs. chipotle sauce (to taste and depending on your threshold for spice)
1 tsp. sugar
Goya light salt to taste
Fresh ground black pepper to taste
Tortilla strips


Season chicken with chipotle sauce, seasoning salt, cumin and garlic powder. Cook on grill pan or in a frying pan with cooking spray until outside is golden brown and "caramelized". Set aside to cool. Cook bacon strips in the same pan until crispy. Set aside to cool.
In a food processor add peppers, garlic and onion. Pulse until finely chopped. (You could also chop by hand if you were so inclined but I'm just a lazy cook and like to take the easy way out.) Add to a large stockpot with cooking spray and sauté over medium heat until the vegetables are soften. Add water, potatoes, corn and bouillon cubes and boil until potatoes are soft. Crumble and chop the turkey bacon into small pieces and add to soup.
Now at this point you may say, wow that's a lot of corn and potatoes. Take a slotted spoon and add some corn, potatoes and other stuff without much liquid in a blender and puree. Repeat process in batches until about 1/2 the corn and other stuff is blended. (Use your judgement on how much corn and potatoes you want floating in your soup and puree the rest.) Don't fill up the blender too much since the soup is hot and you will burn yourself. To be safe only go about a 1/3 of the way up. On the final blend add the flour and a bit more broth than the first go-rounds. Return the blended mixture back into the pot and stir well. This will thicken up your soup without thickening up your thighs.
Now, shred the cooled chicken. That's right, just pull it apart with your fingers to shred it. Chop it up a bit more if you want a finer shred. Add remaining chipotle sauce, sugar, seasoning salt and pepper to taste.
Serve with tortilla strips.