Recipes: Chicken Corn Chowder with Roasted Poblano Peppers

Sunday, December 1, 2013

Recipes: Chicken Corn Chowder with Roasted Poblano Peppers

POBLANO CHICKEN CORN CHOWDER

This is one of my favorite Fall recipes. It's a great dish to serve to a large group and also have enough leftover to freeze for those cold winter days. The poblanos are just a little bit hot, but add an interesting dimension of flavor.

In the last couple of years, we have started a yearly chicken corn chowder party tradition! About 10 of us gather right after Thanksgiving, have a big bowl of hot soup, homemade ginger snap cookies and hot buttered rum - then we set up and decorate my Christmas tree together.

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CHICKEN CORN CHOWDER WITH POBLANO PEPPERS:

This recipe makes about 25 cups of soup, so you may want to cut it back if you aren't trying to serve a small army. :)

3 - 4 poblano chilies: roasted, peeled and seeded (The more seeds left behind, the hotter the soup.)
6 chicken breasts: baked whole at 350º until cooked through, about 20 minutes, then cut into chunks
2 yellow onions: cut into a medium dice
6 - 8 carrots: peeled and sliced (I like them sliced into medium sized diagonal coins)
3 russet or 5 new potatoes: peeled and cut into a large dice
3 cans or 3 1# bags of frozen corn: (or 6-8 ears of fresh corn, cut off the cob)

1.5C white wine
12C chicken stock
1.5t cayenne
2T cumin
3T brown sugar
3T chopped cilantro plus some for garnish
Sour cream
Salt and pepper to taste

1: Heat oven to 500º. Place whole poblanos in oven and roast until skin blisters and pulls away from the flesh of the pepper. (If you have a gas range, you can also roast the peppers by placing them directly on the burners. Turn them with tongs until they are evenly blackened.) Place roasted peppers in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap and let sweat in bowl for 30 minutes.

2: Peel the skin off the peppers, remove the stems and seeds. Rinse them a bit in cool water and dry them on a paper towel. Chop the peppers into 1" squares.

3: Heat oil in a large stock pot. Add onions, carrots and a couple pinches of salt and pepper. Cook on medium heat until slightly browned. Add chopped peppers and stir.

4: Deglaze pan with white wine and chicken stock. Add chicken, potatoes, corn and spices and sugar.

5: Simmer for 25 minutes or so until the potatoes are soft. Add the cilantro and adjust salt and pepper.

6: Ladle delicious soup into bowls and top with sour cream and sprigs of cilantro.

YUM!!