Homemade Soup Recipes
The best and easiest soup recipes

Homemade Country Style Potato and Corn Chowder

When you think of chowder you probably think of something with seafood in it, like clams, but there are many kinds of chowders. Chowders are generally cooking using thickened dairy product such as cream or milk and also contain some kind of fat – lard or butter.

This is a wonderful homemade chowder recipe that includes potatoes and corn. In fact, it is so good that you may want to make a double batch of it and freeze some for later.

Homemade Country Style Potato and Corn Chowder

• 4 slices of bacon
• 2 large scrubbed russet potatoes
• 475 ml of whole kernel corn, fresh or frozen (2 cups)
• 1/2 of a white onion
• 5 ml of thyme (1 teaspoon)
• 5 ml of parsley (1 teaspoon)
• 2 - 250 g of canned chicken broth (1 - 15 ounce can)
• 250 ml of water (1 cup)
• 60 ml of shredded carrots (1/4 cup)
• 120 ml of dry white wine (1/2 cup)
•  250 ml of half and half (1 cup) - can use whole milk if preferred
• 45 ml butter (3 tablespoons)
• salt and freshly ground coarse black pepper
• cilantro (optional)
• miso (optional)

Scrub the russet potatoes, then peel and cube them. Peel and dice the onion.

Fry the bacon in a large soup pot on medium high heat until it is crispy. Remove the bacon from the pot shaking to drain off the grease and set it aside, leaving the bacon grease in the pot.

Reduce the heat under the soup pot to medium low and add the cubed potatoes, the whole kernel corn and the diced onion to the bacon grease. Saute them until the onion turns limp and clear and the potatoes are starting to turn golden.

Pour the chicken broth and the water into the soup pot. Add the thyme, the parsley and the shredded carrot. Raise the heat back up to high and bring the ingredients to a boil. Stir often to keep the food from scorching on the bottom of the pot. Add the white wine and reduce the heat to bring the chowder down to a simmer until the potatoes are soft. Remove the pot from the heat.

Get out a large mixing bowl and a blender. You may not need the mixing bowl if you have a very large blender. You are going to scoop about 1/3 of the chowder from the soup pot and put it into the blender and blend until smooth. You can do it in batches if you need to, pouring each batch into the mixing bowl. Pour the mixture from the blender back into the remaining chowder. If it’s not thick enough, do another batch until it is.

Pour the half and half or milk into the pot and add the butter. If you want to use the miso, this is the time to put it in. You just need a couple of tablespoons (30 ml). If you can find it, it is well worth adding because it greatly adds to the flavor (you will never want to make chowder without it again!). You can usually find it in an oriental grocery store.

Gently stir everything together until the chowder is well blended. Crumble the bacon and add it to the pot, along with the salt and pepper to your liking. You can go ahead and let it simmer on low heat for awhile until you are ready to serve it. Monitor it and stir it occasionally.

Serve your homemade country style potato and corn chowder hot.