Name: Instant Pot Potato and Corn Chowder with Bacon (Dairy Free)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 45 min
Total time: 1 h
Ingredients: 6 slices of uncooked bacon; 4 medium golden potatoes; 2 cups of corn, fresh or frozen; 1 medium sweet or yellow onion; 3 cloves of garlic or 1 teaspoon minced garlic; 1 3/4 cups chicken broth; 1 1/4 cup almond milk; 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper; 1 teaspoon salt; 2 Tablespoons tapioca flour

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Prep Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 45 mins Total Time: 60 mins Yield: 4 Servings

This Potato and Corn Chowder is the perfect meal for a fall night, and a great way to use farm fresh corn that is in season! This dairy free chowder is made in the Instant Pot with golden potatoes, fresh corn and pieces of bacon.

Potato and corn chowder with bacon in a white bowl with potatoes and corn on the cob in the background.

There’s nothing like enjoying a warm bowl of soup on a cool, brisk night. Especially when summer nights start to go from hot and humid to crisp and chilly. This change in seasons also means fresh sweet corn is in season! What a better way to enjoy fresh corn in the cooler weather than a chowder!

Now, typically chowder’s have a creamy base and are made with cream or half and half and everything that people who are dairy free can’t have. But not this one! But I can promise you that it does not lack in the creamy department. Once this soup finishes in the Instant Pot, we blend half of it with a bit of tapioca flour and the result is a thick and creamy soup with a little bit of chunkiness leftover from the potatoes, corn and pieces of bacon. The ingredients are simple and the steps are easy to achieve this delicious and creamy dairy free potato and corn chowder with bacon pieces.

If you want some more soup recipes for the cooler weather, try this creamy tomato soup recipe. Have extra potatoes on hand? Try this potato salad recipe that is full of fresh herbs and made without mayonnaise!

Table of Contents hide

1 Ingredients:

2 Kitchen tools you will need to make this chowder:

3 How to use your Instant Pot for Potato and Corn Chowder with Bacon Pieces:

3.1 How to use the Instant Pot in this recipe:

4 If you do not have an Instant Pot:

5 Craving other delicious recipes? Take a look!

6 Instant Pot Potato and Corn Chowder with Bacon (Dairy Free)

6.1 Ingredients

6.2 Directions

7 Did you make this recipe?

7.1 Related

Ingredients:

Uncooked Bacon– you’ll need uncooked so that you can preserve and use the grease from cooking the bacon.

Golden Potatoes– the best kind in soups and chowders; perfect for blending into a creamy base.

Corn- you can use either fresh or frozen.

Sweet or Yellow Onion

Garlic– 3 cloves but you can also use 1 teaspoon of minced garlic.

Chicken Broth– I use regular chicken broth, but no salt added works as well. You might have to add a bit more salt into the chowder if you choose this option.

Almond Milk– or your favorite nut milk. You can use coconut milk for an even creamery chowder, but it will alter the taste.

Black Pepper

Salt

Tapioca Flour– the magic ingredient in this creamy, yet dairy free chowder. Tapioca flour is a perfect gluten free substitute for thickening gravy, sauces and soups.

Kitchen tools you will need to make this chowder:

This recipe requires a pressure cooker, but no worries if you don’t have one! I’ve listed out the directions for both an Instant Pot and non Instant Pot version down below.

Instant Pot– I have this Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker and I loooove it! I go more into detail down below on why I love it and my favorite features.
Blender- I have this Cuisinart CBT-2000 3.5 Peak Hurricane Pro Blender and it is my favorite blender of all time. It’s pricy and it’s a splurge but its incredible and so worth it. I also make my own oat flour with this blender. Its quick and easy and actually gets the rolled oats into a super fine consistency without random chunks of oat throughout. It’s also great for hot foods and drinks like this chowder. It’s big enough where you don’t have to worry about taking the top off and spilling the contents, especially when the contents are hot (we’ve all been there). I used to have numerous Ninja blenders and those are great, but I don’t find that the quality lasts as long as this one. I use this blender pretty often and its still in great condition.
Garlic Press– besides spatulas and wooden spoons this is my most used item when cooking. I could not live without it.
Ladle
A pair of tongs or a fork for flipping the bacon.

How to use your Instant Pot for Potato and Corn Chowder with Bacon Pieces:

I have the Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker and I love it! It’s easy and quick and I love the different settings on it. My favorite is the Sauté button. It works just like a skillet and is so simple and easy to use. You can sauté anything you would in a regular skillet right in your Instant Pot. It’s no fuss and it doesn’t make a mess. Plus you don’t have to dirty an extra skillet, so its less cleanup.

I’ll admit that I was one of those people that was terrified of using a pressure cooker. I was nervous it’d explode if I did something wrong. But I am here to assure you that it will not!! I now love and use it all the time for so many different things. It’s not only easy because the buttons and settings are straightforward, but most of the recipes only use one pot which makes cleanup even easier. It’s a game changer.

How to use the Instant Pot in this recipe:

If you have the Instant Pot Duo 7-in-1 Electric Pressure Cooker, press the Sauté button and make sure it’s on normal heat and set it for 20 mins. Place the strips of bacon into the pot and flip halfway through cooking. I typically like my bacon not crispy, but for the purpose of this recipe you’ll need to cook your bacon until it’s crispy. Take the bacon out, but leave the bacon grease in (this is where a lot of the flavor comes from).
With the sauté setting still on, sauté the diced onion until the majority of the onions are translucent. Add the minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Press cancel if there is still time left on the sauté setting.
Next add the chicken stock, almond milk, potatoes, corn, salt and pepper.
Tightly close the lid until you hear the jingle and make sure the valve is turned towards sealing and NOT venting.
Once the Instant Pot is sealed properly press the pressure cook button and turn the cook time to 4 mins. Let be and the pressure cooker will heat up for about 10-15 mins and then it will cook and the timer will count down.
Once it beeps that it is ready you can either let it naturally release by doing nothing, or you can manually release by carefully and quickly moving the valve to venting (be careful there’s a lot of steam and it comes fast!). Allow for all the steam to exit and depressurize and once there is no more steam, you can open the lid.
Continue to the recipe for the rest of the directions on how to make the soup ultra creamy.

If you do not have an Instant Pot:

If you do not have an instant pot, no worries you can still make this recipe!

In a skillet cook the bacon until crispy, flipping halfway. Remove the bacon, but leave the grease.
Add the diced onion to the skillet and sauté until the majority of the onions are translucent. Add the minced garlic and sauté for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Turn the burner off and remove the skillet from the burner.
In a large pot add the sautéed onions, minced garlic, chicken stock, almond milk, potatoes, corn, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and continue to cook until the potatoes are tender and can be pierced with a fork. While the chowder is cooking crumble the bacon pieces (they crumble best when they are fully cooled off).
Once the chowder is done cooking, turn off the heat and scoop half of the chowder into a high speed blender. Add 2 Tablespoons of tapioca flour and blend until there are no chunks of potato and corn left. Pour the blended chowder back into the pot and stir well.
Add the bacon pieces and stir well.

Craving other delicious recipes? Take a look!