Wash scallops, pat dry, season with salt and pepper and set aside.

Heat a medium sized pot over medium high heat. Lightly mist with nonstick cooking spray. Add in the bacon, and heat until bacon becomes crispy and fragrant – about 2 minutes.

Add in about ¼ cup of the chicken stock, and with a rubber spatula, deglaze the pot by scraping up all the browned bits from bottom of the pot, if any.

Add in the onion and garlic and sauté for about another 5 minutes. Add in more of the broth if you need to keep the ingredients from sticking to the pot.

Stir in paprika, red pepper, chipotle and salt & pepper. Saute for about another minute.

Add in the corn, and stirring occasionally, let cook for another 2 minutes, just until the corn is heated through.

Now add in the rest of the stock. Turn heat down to a low simmer, cover and let cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add in the half and half, and using an immersion blender, place it in the pot and pulse it a few times until about half of the soup becomes creamy, still leaving whole kernels as well. If you don’t have an immersion blender, ladle about a cup and a half of the soup into a blender and pulse until creamy. Pour back into the pot and stir to combine.

In the meantime, cook scallops by melting butter in a large non-stick skillet, and setting over medium heat. Make sure pan is nice and hot before adding in scallops (you should see a tiny bit of smoke coming up from the melted butter).

Place scallops in the skillet and cook until browned well on both sides, about 2 minutes on each side. *NOTE: Because of variation in scallop thickness, pan temperatures and so on, it's not easy to pinpoint an exact cooking time. But after a couple of minutes, it's OK to peek underneath. If you see a nice, caramel-colored crust on the underside, they're ready to flip.

Divide chowder evenly into 4 bowls, and top with 3 scallops each. Top with fresh chopped chives.