Welcome fall with a hearty bowl of Easy 30-minute corn chowder! Fresh sweet corn, hominy, potatoes, pancetta and chives provide the base for this delicious soup.
I love crisp fall days and a warm bowl of soup. When I have a group of people over in the fall, I love hosting a soup party. Soups like this recipe for Easy 30-Minute Corn Chowder, or my recipes for Easy 30-Minute Potato Leek Soup and Tuscan Kale and Cannellini Soup are easy ones to prepare for a crowd. And they are so delicious!
Jump to RecipeEasy 30-Minute Corn Chowder – Fast and Flavorful
One of the things I love about this soup is that it is fast, easy and versatile. Many soups require a longer cook time to develop flavor. With this recipe for Easy 30-Minute Corn Chowder, you’re only a few minutes away from a body- and soul-warming dinner.
The recipe calls for pancetta, but if you can’t find pancetta, a slice of bacon can be substituted. If you have an extra grilled chicken breast from earlier in the week, dice it up and throw it in. The smoky flavor from the grill won’t disappoint. The only thing I will double down on is that you must use chicken stock and not substitute chicken broth. Because this is a very simple soup, it needs the extra richness that stock provides.
Hominy – another side of corn
For those of us living in the Northern part of the U.S., hominy is an ingredient worth getting to know if you aren’t already acquainted. If you’ve had grits, you’ve had hominy. You may have encountered it in baked goods, soups and stews.
I use hominy in various forms when I make, tamales, tortillas and even Pazole – a hearty Mexican soup consisting of pork and hominy and garnished with fresh everything. So delicious! But that is another recipe….
In short, hominy comes from field corn – either white or yellow. It gets its unique texture and flavor through an ancient process called Nixtamalization, where corn is soaked in an alkali solution. The process yields a bigger, fluffier kernel that is extremely versatile. If you’re looking for a deeper dive into the origin of hominy, check out the article, What is Hominy? by Layla Khoury-Harold – a contributor at the Food Network.
In this recipe for Easy 30-minute Corn Chowder, we use hominy to lift the corn flavor of this soup. Hominy also provides another, hearty, toothy texture. If you want to add a little protein to this dish, you can add one cup of pre-cooked chicken. Boiled, baked, grilled, it all tastes good. But honestly, I don’t even miss it with the hominy. It really satisfies.
I prefer Juanita’s Mexican Style Hominy. One 25 oz. can will yield two batches of this soup. This recipes easily doubles, but if you are looking to only make a single batch, the unused portion of rinsed hominy will easily freeze for another day.
If you love soup and are looking for another use for Hominy, check out my recipe for Authentic Mexican Pozole in 45 Minutes. This soup is one of my absolute favorite comfort foods. Pozole is a delicious pork and hominy stew simmered in a flavorful stock that’s seasoned with achiote paste, cumin and cilantro, and finished with assorted fresh toppings. Not only is it delicious, it is absolutely stunning to look at, and since we feast first with our eyes, it will delight your senses from start to finish.
If you enjoy this Easy 30-Minute Corn Chowder recipe, I know you will love this pozole recipe as well. I hope you will give them both a try.
Easy 30-Minute Corn Chowder
Course: MainCuisine: AmericanDifficulty: Easy4
servings10
minutes20
minutesThis recipe will serve four as a hearty main course, six as a starter.
Ingredients
2 oz. pancetta, cut into 1/2 inch dice
1/2 cup white onion, 1/4 inch dice
1 cup fresh sweet corn, cut off the cob (roughly one large ear of corn)
1 cup canned, white hominy, rinsed and drained
1 cup russet potato, peeled, 1/4 inch dice (roughly one medium potato)
1 tsp. fresh thyme leaves, removed from their stem
1 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
2 cups chicken stock (not broth, you need the richness of stock)
2 cups Half & Half
3 tsp. fresh chives
1 chicken breast, cooked and cubed into 1/2 inch pieces (optional)
Directions
- Mince the chives and set aside.
- In a medium-size stock pot, over medium heat, cook the pancetta until crisp. Approximately 5 minutes. Reserve the fat that was rendered, but move the pancetta from the pan and drain on a paper towel. Set aside.
- Add the onion and potatoes to the pan and saute in the rendered fat over medium heat until the onions become translucent. Approximately 5 minutes.
- While the onions are cooking, heat up the 2 cups of chicken stock to just the boiling point.
- Add the hot liquid, corn, hominy, salt, pepper and thyme to the pot. Reduce heat to a simmer, cover and allow to cook for 20 minutes. The potatoes will be fully cooked.
- Add a few spoonfuls of the hot liquid to the Half & Half to temper. Gradually add the Half & Half to the pot and stir.
- Add a cup of cooked chicken if desired to the soup at this time (optional). Simmer until heated through.
- Garnish soup with the pancetta crisps and fresh chives.
