Smoked Chicken & Sweetcorn Chowder

So Kit has to go to the emergency eye clinic, turns out she has got viral conjunctivitis, not nice.

Hmmm, was going to be chicken & mushroom lasagne for tea, made with some ‘Ome smoked chicken (done at the same time as the lamb for Easter).Thinking about it though seems as our house is ‘house of the lurg’ at the moment maybe a nice warming smoked chicken & sweetcorn chowder might be in order. There is nothing like a soup made with real chicken stock to kick those pesky virus and bacteria into touch!

Chicken & Sweetcorn Chowder (Serves 4-6)

You will need:

Leftover roast chicken (approximately 300g or two good handfuls, it doesn’t have to be smoked!)

Butter

Flour

Onion

Garlic

Chicken stock (Boil up the bones from the roast chicken if you’ve had time. You want about a pint)

Milk or cream

sweetcorn (frozen or tinned)

Cooked potato (either leftover new potatoes or dice up a large baker and boil for 20 minutes)

Seasoning

Method:

Melt some butter, about 125g, in a pan. Add some chopped garlic (1 or 2 cloves) and some onion (1 medium sized). Fry gently for a couple minutes.

Add a tablespoon of flour to the pan and stir for a minute to help cook the flour out.

Add some stock (if it’s hot it will blend with the flour better and you will void lumps), a bit at a time and keep stirring to make a smooth paste. Once you’re at this stage you should be able to add the rest of the stock with no problems. Keep stirring until the sauce comes to a simmer (if it does go lumpy you can always get the hand blender in there or put in a liquidizer).

Add your chicken and potato and let that heat through for 10 minutes. You can then add the sweet corn and either a couple tablespoons of cream or about 1/4 pint of milk. The soup should be a nice thick consistency, if it’s too thick thin with a bit more stock or milk.

Season with pepper (ground white works best) and salt to taste. I also add a generous pinch of paprika (you could use smoked).

You can add some finely chopped fresh parsley or chervil if you have any.

After ten minutes the Chowder will be ready.

Serve with some nice crusty bread for a lovely comforting meal.