It's been about a year since I've made corn chowder, so I decided to whip out my old recipe and try my hand at re-inventing a classic. I had some leftover ham in the freezer, and I thought this would be the perfect way to use it: the ham gives a more hearty feel to the soup, as do the potatoes.
What You Need:
4 Yukon Gold potatoes, cut into small cubes
about 1/2 pound diced ham (larger sized dices)
2 onions, diced small
3 corns of corn - cut the corn off and save the cob
4 cups chicken stock (I like the low sodium kind)
salt, pepper
1/4 cup cooking sherry
What you do:
Sautee the onion in about 1 1/2 tablespoons of butter and 1/2 tablespoon of oil. Let it cook until it is translucent and pretty wilted down - then add the corn and continue to cook down. Finally, add the potatoes and the chicken stock, sherry, salt and pepper (just add about a 1/2 teaspoon of each to start, and work from there later). Put the corn cobs in with the chowder and let all this boil down for about 20 minutes, then take the cobs out, add the ham, and continue to cook the chowder for another 15-20 minutes.
This is technically not a "chowder" but I like to call it that because it is so chunky and because adding the corn husks allows for the corn milk to seep into the stew and make it creamy without having to add cream or half and half. You can alter the cook times according to how cooked you like your potatoes and on how quickly it thickens up. If you add too much stock and the chowder gets really runny, keep boiling it down, or take a little of the juice out and mix it with about 1 tsp cornstarch to make a slurry. Add this back into the pot and it should thicken the chowder nicely.