Poblano Corn Chowder

Total Time: 55 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 40 mins

Ingredients

• 8 ears corn, as fresh as possible
• 2 poblano peppers, seeded and chopped into small pieces
• 2 chipotle chiles in adobo
• 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
• 5 medium idaho russet potatoes, cut into one inch cubes (approximately)
• 8 cups chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
• 1 large spanish onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 orange bell pepper, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 cup cream
• 8 ounces low-fat monterey jack cheese or 8 ounces mexican queso fresco
• 2 tablespoons butter or 2 tablespoons non-fat cooking spray
• cilantro, for garnish

Recipe

• 1 cut up the potatoes and remove the kernels of corn from the cobs with a knife. set aside in a large bowl, or wherever you have room. (i held the corn in a bowl while i cut so the kernels didn't fly everywhere so much.).
• 2 in a large pot (this recipe makes about 14 cups, so pretty large), boil the broth and the corn cobs together for about 15-20 minutes.
• 3 remove the cobs and let cool. scrape the remaining corn bits into the pot of broth. you can use a butter knife or spoon. let this pot rest for a moment.
• 4 in a large skillet, melt butter or use non-fat cooking spray and saute the chopped onions and bell peppers until just tender.
• 5 add to this skillet the garlic and poblanos and continue to saute until poblanos are tender too.
• 6 dump the onion/pepper/garlic mixture into the broth pot. add the chipotle(s) (whole so they can be removed if you like) and some of the adobo sauce (2 t. is a rough estimate).
• 7 bring to a boil and simmer about 5 minutes.
• 8 add potatoes and corn and simmer until potatoes are al dente ;) maybe 20 minutes?.
• 9 turn off the heat. add cream.
• 10 ladle about half of the soup into a blender (you may have to do this in batches) and blend with the cheese. (i do 2 batches, so i use half the cheese in the first batch and half in the second.).
• 11 call everyone to dinner.
• 12 you can offer cilantro as a garnish (or even add a bit to the soup pot if everyone likes it.).