Before putting the chicken in, add all or whichever vegetables you might like to be a little less chunky. A few whizzes with the blender will smooth things out considerably, and you can control the smoothness to taste. I've never had canned corn chowder, so I don't share the nostalgia of familiar canned favorites in that department, but I certainly do in others! I use my immersion blender in so many soupy foods because even when I like chunks, I often prefer to blend it to varying degrees.

Cook some chopped up bacon and then saute your onions in the bacon grease.

Then add some flour and cook for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

Add your chicken broth and cook, stirring constantly, until it is the consistency of cream. Cook the rest of your ingredients in that.

If it gets too thick, just add more chicken broth.

since I think the solutions to most of life's problems start out with "first, make a roux.."

PF is a good company that uses very little rubbish in their products, but I would imagine there's a big helping of Xanthan gum in their soups. It's not the worst thing in the world, but unless they've had to go gluten free, it's not something the average cook will have on hand.