Take advantage of sweet summer corn and make my Grandma’s Corn Chowder with Potatoes and Bacon! A few updates to her vintage recipe make this a modern classic. Fresh chives, homemade croutons & crispy bacon are the perfect toppings.
The Idea:
There’s nothing like looking through family recipes, or just thinking about your favorite foods from your childhood, to instantly feel at home. It’s kind of corny (get it, corny? Corn chowder?? Sorry.), but it’s said that the most important ingredient in cooking is love. When you make a recipe from a family member or friend, love instantly becomes the number one ingredient. I’m lucky to have some handwritten recipes from my Grandma Vi, who was a great cook. I thought it would be fun to try making some of her recipes, and since fresh corn is in season, Grandma’s Corn Chowder with Potatoes and Bacon seemed like a natural place to start.
Now, as you can see from the photo above, the problem you run into with family recipes is that sometimes the measurements and instructions are vague and/or lacking in detail. In my case it’s instructions like “fill the pan with milk” (what size pan, how much milk is that?) and “serve with bread cubes – oven browned” (what temperature oven, how do you make homemade croutons?) that can make it difficult. Usually (hopefully!) the person who wrote the recipe isn’t trying to be secretive or unclear, they’re just so familiar with making it that they don’t even think of adding the details. If this is the case, you can use the recipe as inspiration and put your own spin on it.
The Ingredients:
I did decide to use fresh corn instead of the canned cream style corn in the original recipe. My Grandma lived in a small town in Northern Minnesota, and didn’t have access to fresh corn for as much of the year as we do now. So for her, canned corn was the best option. It’s still a good option if you’re looking for a short cut!
I also added a little white wine to deglaze the pan, half and half for richness, and some fresh thyme and chives for a nice herby note.
The Preparation:
The star of a corn chowder is of course the corn and the first thing you’ll want to do is shuck and clean it. Lots of grocery stores also sell the corn already shucked for a little more money. If you don’t like cleaning corn, I highly recommend this option! Once the shucking is done, I’ve got an easy way for you to get those kernels off the cobs.
If you’ve ever tried this on a regular cutting board, you probably ended up with corn kernels flying all over the counter and the floor. To avoid that mess, just take a small bowl and turn it upside down inside of another, larger bowl.
Next you’ll cut the bottom off of the cobs with a serrated knife so you have a nice, stable base. Stand the cob on the small bowl, and slice straight down with the serrated knife, the kernels will fall right into the larger bowl!
Before you know it, you’ll have a bowl full of the best, sweetest, freshest corn.
Once the corn is ready, you can prep the rest of your ingredients. Start by peeling and dicing the potatoes into bite sized cubes. I used Yukon gold potatoes because they have great texture and hold their shape well as the soup is simmering. After the potatoes, you’ll dice dice the onions, cube the bread and chop the chives.
Now that everything’s ready to go, you’ll start building flavor by frying the bacon in your soup pot. You’ll remove the crisp bacon and set it aside to use as a topping for the chowder. But you’ll also leave a few tablespoons of the bacon fat (flavor!), and the browned crispy bits at the bottom of the pan, to sauté your onions. Once the onions are nice and soft, you can add some white wine to deglaze the pan. Let it simmer for a few minutes, then add the chicken stock, corn and potatoes. You’ll bring the chicken stock to a low boil, then simmer until the potatoes and corn are tender, but not mushy.
While the chowder is simmering you can make those delicious homemade croutons I mentioned before. I used a sourdough bakery loaf, but you can use whatever kind of bread you like. Take your bread cubes, toss them with olive oil and a little salt and brown them in the oven until they are golden brown and crunchy. Set them aside to use as part of your topping trifecta – the croutons, crispy bacon, and chopped chives!
In about 15 minutes the corn and potatoes will be tender, and it’ll be time to add the milk and half and half. Adding the dairy is what turns your soup into a chowder! After you add the milk and half and half, you’ll want to bring the chowder up to a low simmer to warm everything through. But make sure you don’t boil the soup at this point because the dairy might curdle.
Give it a taste and adjust the seasonings for salt and pepper. I like to add some of the chives at this point too, then save the rest for people to add as they like with the other toppings.
The Payoff:
Sweet corn, tender chunks of potatoes, fresh thyme and chives in a creamy chowder base – heaven! You’ll also love the homemade croutons and smoky bacon as toppings. Give my Grandma’s corn chowder with potatoes and bacon a try this summer.
And try a vintage recipe from a friend or family member of your own too. If you do, please let me know what you make!
Grandma’s Corn Chowder with Potatoes and Bacon
- Yield: 8 1x
Description
Take advantage of sweet summer corn and make my Grandma’s Corn Chowder with Potatoes and Bacon! A few updates to her vintage recipe make this a modern classic. Fresh chives, homemade croutons & crispy bacon are the perfect toppings.
Ingredients
- 1/2 lb sliced bacon, cut into 1 inch pieces
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 yellow onion, diced. About 2 cups.
- 1/2 cup white wine, I used Pinot Grigio (don’t use cooking wine, get the good stuff!)
- 4 ears of fresh corn, kernels cut from the cobs, about 4 cups
- 3 cups of cubed potatoes, red or white, I used yukon gold
- 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme, or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 3 cups chicken stock
- 2 cups milk
- 1 cup half and half
- 3 tablespoons chives, chopped
Croutons
- 1/2 loaf crusty bread, about 3 cups
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325 for the croutons.
- In your soup pot, fry the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove the bacon and set aside to use on the finished soup. Pour all but about 2 tablespoons of the bacon fat out of the pan.
- Add 2 tablespoons of butter to the bacon fat. Next add the chopped onions to the pan and saute over low heat for about 10 minutes until caramelized and soft.
- Add the wine to the onions and simmer for 3-4 minutes.
- Now add the corn, potatoes, thyme, salt and pepper to the pan and stir to combine.
- Add the chicken stock and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer, partially covered, for 15 minutes until the potatoes and corn are tender.
- Add the milk, half and half and 1 tablespoon of the chives. Heat to a gentle simmer on low for 10 minutes. Don’t let the soup boil at this point, otherwise the dairy might curdle. Taste and adjust the seasoning for salt and pepper.
- While the soup is simmering, make the croutons. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Toss the bread cubes, olive oil and salt in a mixing bowl, then spread on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or so until the croutons are browned.
- To serve the corn chowder, ladle into a wide soup bowl and garnish with croutons, bacon and chives.
