My Corn Chowder’s Like a Good Man: Hot and Low-Maintenance

By Carly

I don’t know about the weather where all of you are, but where I live, it’s still pretty freaking cold. While I would love nothing more than for spring to come, in the meantime I’m going to make the best of the ugly weather by having nice, hot meals!

Corn chowder is one of my favorite soup/stew hybrids, and I made a delicious two-person batch last week from a really simple recipe I modified. I guarantee it’s delicious, so give it a try!

Here’s what you need: about a tablespoon of butter, 1-2 slices of uncooked bacon, one small onion, one carrot, half a red bell pepper, about one cup of frozen (or canned, or fresh) corn, two cups of milk, chicken or vegetable broth (optional, and 1-2 cups if you use it), a bay leaf, one potato, a dash of salt, about ¼ teaspoon pepper, and about ¼ teaspoon thyme.

First, cook the bacon in a pan until it’s crisp.

While it’s cooking, chop up your onion, potato, carrot, and red bell pepper.

Set the crisp bacon on a paper towel to drain, and keep the grease in the pan. Add the chopped vegetables to the greasy pan.

Let them cook for 5-10 minutes, until they’re soft and beginning to brown. Then add the milk and the bay leaf.

At this point, you can also add vegetable or chicken broth if you want, but just milk is fine, too. I usually use about as much chicken broth as I do milk.

Let the soup come to a boil, then turn the heat down to low, cover the pan, and keep it simmering for 30 minutes. You may want to check it every so often to make sure all the liquid isn’t evaporating. If it is, just add more (milk, broth, or even water is fine).

After the 30 minutes have passed, add the salt, pepper, and thyme to the soup. Cover the pan again and simmer for 10-15 minutes. When it’s finished, it should look something like this:

And that’s it! Corn chowder for two in less than an hour, ready for you to share with a hot and low-maintenance man (or woman!) in your life.