Green Chile Corn Chowder

Was it just last post I was expressing sadness at our piddly Denver snow this season?  I should pay more attention to the news because I woke up this morning to a Winter Storm Warning beeping on my phone....is there any felicity in the world superior to this? (I just watched Sense and Sensibility last night and as is the norm, will quote the movie relentlessly throughout the following week)

Snow = felicity.  Big fat flakes of white snow falling from the sky throughout an entire 

day = happiness  for the soul.  Yes sirree. 

Even Brooklyn thinks so. 

Soup, stew or chili are the standards for snow days right?  I knew I wanted something thick and hearty so opted to throw a pot of chowdah on before heading outside to shovel and let Brooklyn play for 5 minutes before she whined to come back in.  That's how she rolls. 

I love the hearty creaminess of a chowder especially with bites of potatoes and corn.  When I  opened the freezer I saw a few baggies of all the green chiles I'd so painstakingly peeled, chopped and divided up into freezer baggies this past fall.  I am just like Laura Ingalls Wilder, all ready for The Long Hard Winter--if she also happened to have boxes of pre-made chicken broth.  One can only aspire to so much Laura Ingallness. 

By 10 am this morning, we only had 5-6 inches but it's been deliciously snowing all day long.  As predicted, this little one had enough after about 5 minutes and was ready for a long hard day sleeping in front of the fireplace.  

This may have been overkill considering I had corn and green chiles in the chowder, but I wanted to make cornbread with the chowder and remembered  this Pinterest recipe I've been wanting to make for ages: jalapeno cornbread poppers.  I followed the recipe for the most part except that I cooked the jalapenos for 15 minutes at 350 first just to ensure they would cook through and I used a different cornbread mix.  Sometimes mixes are just good. I'd also chopped all of the stems/tops off before I realized that the original recipe still had them on, because you needed to keep the muffin mix contained.  I just pressed the cut edges up against the side of the pan. 

The fantastic part of simmering soup is the smell throughout the house and the building anticipation.  Just a few hours of super slow simmering later, and I had a pretty large pot of sweet, salty, spicy and creamy chowdah.  The cream adds a delicious fabulousness that I think is essential to chowder and 1/2 cup really isn't all that much.  If you don't love the cream, you can also add a can of evaporated milk.  I also prefer to mash up some of my chowder to thicken it rather than thickening it with flour.  The chiles, well they were the absolutely essential--I may just resort to adding the green chiles to chowder moving forward.  

Just in case I didn't say it enough...I LOVE snow days.  Hope your days were toasty oasty!

Green Chile Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

5 slices of bacon diced

1 medium onion, diced

3 medium potatoes

16 oz bag of frozen corn

1 1/2 cup diced roasted anaheim chiles

1 32oz box of chicken broth

2 large chicken breasts 

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

1/2 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sliced green onions plus some for garnish

cilantro for garnish

Directions:

1. Brown diced bacon in a heavy soup/stock pot over medium heat
2. Remove all but 1 tbsp of bacon grease from pot and then add onions to pot.  Sautee for 3 minutes until translucent
3. Add diced potatoes, frozen corn and green chiles. Add garlic and black pepper and stir well
4. Pour chicken broth over veggies.  Add chicken breast and press down to immerse in broth.  
5. Cook over lowest heat for 2 hours (You can also cook this over medium heat for 1/2 hour if you want to make this on a bit more of schedule)
6. Remove chicken to a cutting board and allow to cool for 5 minutes.  
7. Use a potato masher to mash the about 1/2 of the soup.  This will thicken the soup--but make sure to leave half of the potatoes/corn/chiles in chunks. 
8. Dice the chicken and return to pot.  Taste and season with salt.
9. Stir in heavy cream (optional--kind of)
10. Remove from heat and stir in green onions.  
11. Serve garnished with green onions and cilantro