My Chef's Hat - Creamy Chicken & Corn Chowder

Living in Oklahoma, we are lucky that cold weather rarely hits before late November. When it does though, it's always a rude awakening. That happened a couple weeks ago, and it was a combination of cold, wind, rain and just all around dreary weather when the day before it had been at least 25 degrees warmer. That kind of weather makes me want to do nothing but stay curled up in bed all day and eat warm, comforting food. We had a home game coming up that Saturday so the staying in bed thing was out. I can't remember what my original meal plan for the night was, but halfway through the day I decided I needed soup. 

I had never made soup until about 2 months ago when I made Thai Shrimp Soup. For some reason I thought it was really difficult and time consuming. I'm sure there are a lot of recipes that are, but the shrimp soup was pretty simple, so it fortified me that I could make other kinds as well. Off to Pinterest I went, and came across Creamy Chicken & Corn Chowder. It looked like exactly what would hit the spot. 

 The recipe calls for chicken breast, but I very rarely ever cook it because they tend to get really dry very quickly. Yet another reason I prefer dark meat. As I read through the reviews, a couple of people mentioned that they had used rotisserie chicken.  I had never bought a rotisserie chicken before, but that seemed like a great idea, especially because I could use the carcass to make chicken broth. I stopped at the grocery store after work, and got the next to last chicken that was left. It was only $5, which is really good considering it's an entire chicken and I could use it to make at least 3 meals plus make the broth.

 Here is the official recipe picture


 And here is my version


The chowder was awesome. It was rich and flavorful, and I love the contrast in textures. The rotisserie chicken added a great deep flavor that you wouldn't get from regular chicken so I'm so glad I followed that recommendation.

 Overall I was pretty pleased with my first attempt at chowder. Corn isn't in season right now. Normally you can still find pretty decent fresh corn at the grocery store well into the fall but they didn't have any at all, so I used frozen. And in a chowder, I don't know that you could taste the difference. I did mess up on the potatoes, because I cut them too large, and I used too much. So mine was much thicker than the recipe photo. I tried to add more broth to thin it out, but by that point it didn't really work. But that is an easy fix. I added jalapenos in the cooking, but didn't add any fresh for serving as the recipe recommends. That would help add a great kick of heat right at the end, because I couldn't really taste any heat from the cooked jalapenos. I think using roasted garlic would be a great add as well. Maybe a little in the last few minutes of cooking so it doesn't totally go away.

 Will I make this again? Absolutely. It's such a perfect dish for a cold day. It's easy to make, and doesn't take too long. It's definitely on the dinner rotation.

 Original Recipe Found at Cooking Classy

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