44. Quick Chicken-Corn Chowder

It amazes me that I can make a good soup AND Broccoli Cheese Muffins (see Broccoli- Cheese Corn Bread, February 20, 2009) in about a half an hour when I get home from work! This is another recipe from the Cooking Light Soup cook book.

Quick Chicken-Corn Chowder

2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery
1 jalapeño pepper, seeded and minced
2 Tablespoons all purpose flour
3 Cups 2% reduced fat milk
2 cups chopped, boneless chicken breast (about 2 breast halves)
1 ½ cups fresh or frozen corn kernels (about 3 ears)
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme or ¼ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon ground red pepper
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 (14 3/4 oz) can cream-style corn
Thyme sprigs (optional)

Melt butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add onion, celery, and jalapeno; cook 3 minutes or until tender, stirring frequently. Add flour; cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in milk and next 6 ingredients. Bring to a boil, cook until thick (about 5 minutes), stirring frequently. Ladle soup into individual bowls. Garnish with thyme sprigs, if desired. Yield: 6 servings (serving size about 1 cup)

Changes and Shortcuts:
I chopped the onion, celery, and jalapeño and cut up the chicken in the morning before work. Again, I don’t like frozen corn so I substituted 2 cans of Green Giant (the best). Here’s the funny part—as I was typing this I realized I didn’t bring the soup to a boil for 5 minutes. I also used red pepper flakes instead of the ground red pepper—I guess I just didn’t read the recipe thoroughly. The soup would probably have had a little thicker consistency if I had read the whole recipe!

Results:
The soup has good flavor and is very easy to make. I didn’t use any of the seeds from the jalapeno—I think I would add some because the soup could have used a little more “punch”. I added a little extra salt and red pepper as well as some black pepper. All in all, a nice thick, quick soup!

Keeper? Yes