There's almost nothing I love more than coming in from a chilly day outside raking leaves (and keeping the kids from eating leaves) to a warm bowl of soup. I love making soups and stews because they're easy to customize and you can substitute all kinds of ingredients. They're not strict like other dishes. So, here is my corn chowder, which can be made vegetarian and gluten free!
Ingredients:
3 chicken breasts (boiled and shredded)
A few pieces of bacon, cooked and diced
An onion
A few tablespoons of oil to sauté
A couple gloves of diced garlic
2 T flour or cornstarch
3-4 taters, peeled and diced
Paprika
Salt
Pepper
6-8 c broth
2 c. Of milk, heavy cream or half and half
3-4 ears of corn or whatever corn you have on hand (frozen, canned, doesn't matter!)
1 T butter (optional)
First, boil your chicken until cooked (or, use leftover rotisserie chicken, or even thanksgiving turkey!)
Next, cook up your bacon and set aside
Start sautéing your onion
Add in your garlic
Meanwhile, prepare your potatoes
Continue watching your onion and garlic until it looks like this, and season as desired with salt and pepper.
Next, add in a couple T of flour or cornstarch to make a roux.
Cornstarch is the gluten free option. Either will work just fine! Promise!
Make sure to stir until the flour is all absorbed.
Slowly add in broth and whisk the entire time (medium heat)
Also add in your milk/cream (you could probably use coconut milk or soy milk too!) Make sure the onions don't have clumps of flour stuck to them. They should look like this:
Next, dump in your potatoes and corn.
Then add in some paprika
I like to add in a T of real butter. Because butter is amazing with corn and potatoes.
Then, turn the pot up to boil, then once it reaches a boil turn it down to simmer. Hint: place a wooden spoon over the top of the pot to keep it from boiling over!
The potatoes should be tender like this:
Add in your meat and continue to let simmer for the meat to get heated up, then you're ready to go!
Perfect for a chilly fall day!
