Souper Sunday: Creamy Corn and Chicken Chowder

So.
I've fallen off the soup wagon this year.  For a long time, I made soup every Sunday in winter and then took it for lunch during the week.  For whatever reason, I just haven't done that much this fall.  While we could blame this on football season and being away a lot, I don't know.  Perhaps soup has fallen out of favour.  I hope not.  With recipes like this, soup will make a comeback.
I spent some time eying this recipe, wondering what the BBQ sauce would taste like.  I'm not sure why I wondered.  It's all good.  Like everything I've made from Looneyspoons, this was a winner.  J told me that I'm welcome to make this again whenever I want.  the problem is, there are so many recipes to make.  Sigh.
I present to you now the Looneyspoons Collection Smoky Roasted Chicken and Corn Chowder:

Ingredients

4 slices bacon, chopped
1 diced onion
2 tsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme
2 tbsp flour
1-1/2 c chicken broth
1 can (14 oz) evaporated milk
1 can (19 oz) diced tomatoes, well drained
1 can (14 oz) cream-style corn
2 c chopped cooked chicken breast
1 Tbsp BBQ sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method
1.  Cook chopped bacon in a large pot until lightly browned but not crisp.  Stir in onions and garlic.  Cook until vegetables begin to soften.
2.  Add thyme and flour.  Mix well.  Stir in broth and milk.  Bring to a gentle boil, and stir continuously until soup thickens slightly.
3.  Reduce heat to medium low and stir in remaining ingredients.  Cover and let simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Adapted from The Looneyspoons Collection

 Frankly, if you start with bacon, how can you go wrong?  This smelled delicious.  Onions, garlic and bacon...the beginnings of so many good things.

Here are my tomatoes being drained.  According to the book, the juice would make the soup bitter.
Can anyone explain to me why recipes call for sizes of cans that don't exist?  This is not an old book.  I couldn't get diced tomatoes in a can smaller than 28 oz.  These are petite cut tomatoes with garlic and olive oil.

Here are things starting to thicken.  The trick with this soup is the milk, and not letting it burn.  Then I realized that the flavour was "smoky", and a little burning on the bottom wouldn't be a problem if I didn't stir it up into the soup.

The BBQ sauce added a nice flavour, and turned the soup a very slightly pink colour.  It was filling and comforting.  I just found it was short of salt; I needed to add quite a bit.
Another winner from my new book!  Hooray!