This creamy chicken & corn soup is lightened up, yet still wonderfully rich and hearty thanks to its thyme-infused broth and generous mix of root vegetables, chicken, and sweet corn. A little prep happens on the stove, then everything finishes together in the slow cooker, making this one of those low-effort, high-reward meals you’ll want to repeat all season long.
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos and helpful success tips.
With smoky bacon, sweet potatoes, cream-style corn, and a velvety broth, every spoonful is comforting, filling, and deeply satisfying.
Creamy Chicken & Corn Soup Details
- Texture: This creamy chicken soup has plenty of hearty, satisfying texture from chunks of chicken, sweet potatoes, and vegetables, plus lots of corn in every bite. Everything cooks in a light, creamy broth made from chicken broth, whole milk, and cornstarch.
- Flavor: Lots to love here! Smoky bacon, sweet corn, earthy thyme, tender vegetables, and plenty of black pepper build layers of flavor as the soup slow-cooks. It’s sweet, savory, creamy, and finished with a fresh pop of herbs.
- Ease: The soup begins with cooking bacon and then moves on to soup-starter basics like onions, garlic, carrots, and celery. These are cooked on the stove, but that’s the only “work” you’ll have to do. You then throw everything else right into the slow cooker except for the milk and cornstarch (see recipe directions below). Are you cooking this during the day while you’re at work? You can prep the veggies on the stove the night before.
- Time: This is a low-and-slow-style soup. About 8 hours total, with only about 20 minutes of active prep.
This is a soup recipe that requires little effort, yet delivers so much flavor. If this appeals to you (little prep, big results!), you’ll also appreciate my minestrone soup, creamy cauliflower potato soup, slow cooker chicken chili, and sweet potato turkey chili recipes.
A Few Key Ingredients
- Bacon: Optional, but highly recommended for flavor depth.
- Celery, carrots, onion, and sweet potatoes: These vegetables add flavor, bulk, and texture.
- Corn & Creamed Corn: Using both whole-kernel corn and cream-style corn gives this soup the best of both worlds. How? The whole kernels provide texture and those sweet little pops of corn, while the cream-style corn adds a creamy richness that ties everything together. You can use frozen or fresh corn in place of the regular canned corn, but I do not recommend skipping the can of cream-style corn.
- Thyme: With its subtle hints of earthy, floral notes, thyme is an essential flavor enhancer in this soup.
- Whole milk: To keep things on the lighter side, we use and recommend 1 and 1/2 cups of whole milk, but you could easily replace it with half-and-half for a thicker soup. You could also combine 1 cup whole milk with 1/2 cup heavy cream.
- Cornstarch: Essential for thickening—do not skip.
How the Creamy Chicken & Corn Soup Comes Together:
Cook the bacon in a large skillet. Let cool and then crumble. Sauté vegetables & garlic in some of the bacon grease until tender. If you are skipping the bacon, sauté it all in a little butter or olive oil.
Combine everything (except for the milk & cornstarch) in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 6–7 hours.
Whisk in the warmed milk & cornstarch mixture, and then cook for 1 more hour. If desired, finish with extra parsley and/or thyme.
You can serve the soup plain, with crackers, in bread bowls or with various breads such as: artisan bread, biscuits, dinner rolls, breadsticks, or asiago-crusted skillet bread.
It pairs beautifully with these oatmeal molasses dinner rolls, too!
For more dinner inspiration, see my list of 30 delicious fall dinner recipe ideas or cozy winter dinner ideas.
Yes. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs work wonderfully and stay extra tender.
Yes. Use full-fat coconut milk or unsweetened oat milk.
Yes, no problem at all! See detailed recipe Note below.
Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken & Corn Soup
- Prep Time: 25 minutes
- Cook Time: 7 hours, 30 minutes
- Total Time: 8 hours
- Yield: 12 cups
- Category: Dinner
- Method: Slow Cooker
- Cuisine: American
Description
Ingredients
- 4 strips bacon
- 1 cup (130g) sliced carrots
- 1 cup (130g) sliced celery
- 3/4 cup (100g) diced yellow onion
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 (14.75-ounce/418g) can cream-style corn
- 2 (15.25-ounce/432g) cans corn, drained (or use about 3 cups fresh or frozen)
- 3 cups (400g) peeled & cubed sweet potatoes (around 2 medium)
- 3 boneless, skinless chicken breasts, diced (about 1.25 pounds or 570g)
- 5 cups (1200g/ml) chicken broth (I use reduced-sodium)
- 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme leaves
- 2 teaspoons dried parsley flakes
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1 and 1/2 cups (360g/ml) whole milk, slightly warmed
- 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
- optional: fresh (or dried) parsley and/or thyme for garnish
Instructions
- Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat until browned on both sides. Reserve 2 to 3 Tablespoons of the grease. Place cooked bacon on a paper towel–lined plate and allow to cool. Once cool enough to handle, chop into crumbles.
- To the greased skillet, add the carrots, celery, and onion. Stir and cook until soft and tender, about 5 minutes. Add the garlic and stir and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute more. Remove from heat.
- Place the creamed corn, corn, sweet potatoes, chicken, chicken broth, thyme, parsley, salt, and pepper into a 5-quart or larger slow cooker. Add the celery/carrot/onion mixture and the crumbled bacon (save some for garnish, if desired). Stir to combine and cover with the lid.
- Cook on low heat for about 6–7 hours.
- After 6–7 hours, whisk the warmed milk and cornstarch together. Pour into the soup. Give it a good stir, then cover.
- Cook on low heat for 1 more hour.
- Serve warm with a sprinkle of parsley, thyme, and/or any leftover bacon crumbles.
- Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 1 week. To reheat, simply pour into a pot and cook over medium heat until warm. Soup freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw and then reheat.
Notes
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Large Skillet | Slow Cooker (5-quart or larger)
- No Slow Cooker? No Problem. Prepare recipe through step 2. Instead of placing ingredients into a slow cooker in step 3, place into a large pot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Stir together, then allow to boil and cook until chicken is no longer pink, about 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to low, whisk the warmed milk and cornstarch together, and then stir it into the soup. Let simmer for 10 minutes more.
- Can I Use Chicken Thighs Instead of Chicken Breasts? Yes. Boneless, skinless chicken thighs work wonderfully and stay extra tender.
- Whole Milk: We use and recommend 1 and 1/2 cups of whole milk, but you could easily replace it with half-and-half for a thicker soup. You could also combine 1 cup whole milk with 1/2 cup heavy cream. For a nondairy option, use full-fat coconut milk or unsweetened oat milk.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1.5 cup
- Calories: 208
- Sugar: 8 g
- Sodium: 1123 mg
- Fat: 6.8 g
- Carbohydrates: 28.6 g
- Protein: 9.7 g
- Cholesterol: 21 mg
Reader Comments and Reviews
Decadently delicious. I used leftover chicken breast and cooked it on the stovetop to cut the time back to an hour. I’m not sure if the slow cooker method could have been better. Wow. Definitely a keeper!
I made the Creamy Chicken & Corn soup… not in a crockpot and it is one of the BEST recipes I’ve tried. I read a review that the sweet potatoes take a while to soften ( it’s true for all recipes) so I grated mine & cut the shreds in half & all veges cooked evenly. Thank you so much for this hearty, thick soup!
This soup looks absolutely fantastic! I can’t wait to try it. I don’t have a slow cooker, but instead have an Insta pot. How can I adjust the cook times to accommodate for the Insta pot? Thank you so much.
Hi Molly! We’ve never tested this recipe in an Insta Pot, so we’re unsure of how the cook times might change. However, we do have stovetop instructions in the recipe Notes. Hope you enjoy the soup!
I am not great at making soup, but this wonderful recipe provided my family with the best soup I have ever made!! It was so good and gone the next day! I used bone in skin on chicken thighs, browned them for 3 minutes on each side in same pan I used for bacon, leaving the bacon grease in the pan. Took 90% of the skin off before putting in crock pot but wanted to get that flavor from the bones & skin. Took the chicken out and deboned it, then added to the soup for the last hour in the crock pot. Turned out fantastic!!! I can’t wait to make it again! Thank you for a wonderful recipe that was easy to make and oh so tasty! Next time I will use 4 chicken thighs to add a little more meat to the soup.
I loved this recipe!! After that, I made your iced oatmeal cookies. You are my “go-to” chef!! Didn’t change a thing in either recipe. Made chowder on stove. *****
This looks delicious, but I’m wondering about the three boneless chicken breast. There’s such a variation in size in chicken breasts – for example, the ones I just brought home from the store are nearly a pound each! Does the recipe really call for potentially 3 pounds of chicken breasts?
Hi Ann! We typically use about 1.5 lbs of chicken for this recipe. A little more or less is okay, too. Hope you enjoy it!
Amazing soup! I followed the ingredients exactly. I chose to make it in my dutch oven on the stove – only thing I did differently was I cut the chicken breast up in small bites, and I waited to add that once the veggies were pretty much done – the chicken cooks pretty quickly and stayed tender. Added the milk/cornstarch and cooked for maybe 10 more minutes. More freshly ground black pepper and a little flakey sea salt to finish, and served with some crusty bread. So good!!
My new fave soup except I used rotisserie chicken and heavy whipping cream so I added the chicken at the same time as the cream. Sally, Thank you for such an excellent website! Your recipes are top-notch!
Delicious and easy. Makes enough to feed a crowd!!!
Hi Mat, you can certainly use heavy cream for a richer soup if you prefer.
This recipe was great. I didnt have enough chicken stock so I added some water and white wine (Chardonnay) and it gave it a nice buttery flavor. Also added some diced green chillies and a pepper flake blend. This is a definite keeper and just what we needed. Thank you!
Hi Sally! I love this recipe and totally want to make it this week- but all I have are boneless chicken thighs in my fridge! Think they would dry out in this crockpot recipe? Should I switch to the stovetop for thighs? Or just cook them for less time in the crockpot? Any advice would be super helpful, thank you!!!
Hi Jessica! You can definitely make this with boneless chicken thighs instead– follow the recipe as instructed. No changes needed. Cut the thighs into cubes and add to the slow cooker in step 3.
This is one of my favorite soup recipes! My husband appreciates the bacon addition 🙂
Very hearty and satisfying, I’ve made this soup several times and will be making it for years to come!!
I have lactose intolerance do you have any suggestions for a substitute for cows milk?
Thanks.
Unsweetened (and unflavored) nondairy milk is a fine substitute. Let me know how you like it!
Made this and the huzz and I loved it!!! My only tip is to make sure you cut the sweet potatoes smaller than I did because they were still on the hard side. I froze this meal and defrosted/reboiled it before eating it again and that fixed it perfectly.
My husband always tells me he makes the best corn chowder but now he says this is the best one…even though he typically despises celery, he did not mind it in this soup 🙂
Made this for supper tonight. It was fantastic! Served it with a nice crusty French bread. Thinking it would be great with sausage as well!
Hi Sally, really looking forward to trying this recipe! Can you tell me if whole milk is necessary for the creaminess of the soup? I typically just have 2% milk on hand.
I do recommend whole milk, if you use 2% just note that it will not be as thick or creamy.
Do you think it is possible to cook this recipe for a shorter time on high?
On high for 4 hours would work!
I just made this recipe last night, and it was delicious! My fiance was a big fan. I used a mixture of half and half and the corn starch as well as water (I was out of milk and didn’t have all of the half and half I needed). You could not tell a bit of difference. I also used dried thyme instead of fresh. I think it would be difficult to make this recipe not taste good! I’m already looking forward to eating this again tonight with some crusty bread..yum!
I made this for dinner last night and it was soooo good! The only change I made was using dried thyme instead of fresh and giving it a few pulses with my immersion blender. I’m very much looking forward to leftovers for lunch today and will be stashing some in the freezer (since it made so much) to pull out over the next couple of months. Thanks f or another great dinner recipe! 🙂
Made this last Friday and it had so many good flavors. My husband and I had it for lunch and supper for about three days in a row! Thanks for such a delicious recipe.
This was delicious! I thought I had bacon, but unfortunately I didn’t. I used italian sausage in replacement, and it turned out great – although next time I’m definately trying bacon! Thanks for another great crock-pot recipe 🙂
Thanks for this great recipe Sally! I was using your salted caramel Rollo cookie recipe for Thanksgiving, (which I’ve been doing for years now!) and I decided to look at your savory recipes too. So glad I tried this one–I followed it exactly and it turned out amazing! I loved it, and more importantly so did my family. Thank you!
This. Was. So. Good. Thanks again for another amazing recipe! I also made your “Slow Cooker Chicken Chili” and we loved that as well! Looking forward to trying some more of your recipes.
It is cold and snowing here in MI today and this seemed like the perfect day to make this soup. I have to confess that I ate enough of this soup to sustain 6 people for weeks!!!! Absolutely delicious Sally!!! I could eat this everyday of my life!!! Thank you so much for this great recipe.
This soup is wonderful! Makes me want to make my grandmothers chicken noodle! Perfect for this rainy day, its gross in manhattan today
Hi Sally! I was thinking this soup would help me use some leftover turkey we have from a Friendsgiving this past weekend, but would I put the cooked turkey in the slow cooker from the start or maybe put it in with the milk/cornstarch mixture? Thanks!
That’s a great idea– and you could do it either way. I’d say from the very beginning. You wouldn’t need to cook the soup for as long since the meat is already cooked. I’d say 4-5 hours on low, then add the milk mixture.
Is there any way of substituting the bacon. I love corn chowder and the chicken in it sounds wonderful.
You can simply leave it out 🙂 Cook the veggies in 2 Tablespoons of butter or 1 Tbsp olive oil.