Fast & Easy Dinner: Red Chowder With Leek, Corn, and Crab

Ingredients

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
4 slices thick-cut bacon, chopped
2 large baking potatoes — peeled, halved lengthwise, and thinly sliced crosswise
2 leeks, split lengthwise and sliced 1/2 inch thick
4 ribs celery with leafy tops, chopped
1 bay leaf
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Half of a red bell pepper, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
1/2 cup dry sherry
One 32-ounce container (4 cups) chicken broth
One 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
2 cups frozen corn kernels
12 ounces lump crabmeat, picked over for pieces of shell
2 tablespoons Old Bay Seasoning
A generous handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 to 3 tablespoons chopped chives
Grated peel of 1 lemon or orange
Oyster crackers, optional for serving

Directions

1. In a soup pot, heat the oil, over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook until it renders fat and crisps at the edges, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the potatoes, leeks, celery and bay leaf, season with salt and pepper and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the red bell pepper and thyme, then stir in the sherry and reduce for 1 minute.
4. Stir in the chicken broth, tomatoes, corn, crabmeat and Old Bay Seasoning and simmer until potatoes are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Combine the parsley, chives and lemon peel and sprinkle over the chowder. Pass oyster crackers around the table.

Serves 4.

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