One of my favourite things about summer is all of the fresh corn on the cob and for the last few weeks I have been picking up a half a dozen or more ears every week! I recently came across the idea of a shrimp and corn chowder on Bev Cooks and I immediately took it as an excuse to update my dusty old corn chowder recipe and to add some succulent shrimp to it! Over the last few years I have picked up a few tricks to getting more flavour into soups like this and I seized the opportunity to do so with this new recipe for a shrimp and corn chowder!
First up was to get the most out of the soups liquid base and using a home made chicken stock or shrimp stock is a good way to start here. If you don’t have the time to make your own stock from scratch you can simmer a store bought broth along with the shucked ears of corn and shrimp shells to get some more flavour from them. Of course any soup can benefit from a little smoky bacon and cooking the vegetables in the soup in the remaining bacon grease will help even more. Up next is the corn and lately I have been enjoying ‘roasting’ the kernels in a pan over medium-high heat until they start to char a bit and this charring helps to caramelize the corn enhancing its flavour. I continued to build out the soup with more vegetables in the form of onions, celery and red bell pepper before seasoning it with garlic, thyme and smoked paprika. I finished the chowder off with some flour to thicken it a bit, a stewing potato to make it heartier and of course the cream.
Although you could easily go with salt, pepper and cayenne for the final seasonings, why not take the opportunity to add more flavour? Instead of salt you could easily use another salty ingredient like umami packed miso paste, fish sauce or soy sauce and since this chowder already has seafood in it I decided to go with fish sauce. Once again for the heat you could keep things simple and use cayenne or you could go with something with a bit more flavour like a sambal oelek or a sriracha.
I have to say that this is one of the tastiest corn chowders that I have had in a while! The bit of extra work to get more flavour from the ingredients definitely pays off but if you do not have the time you could easily skip the extra steps and still get one tasty pot of shrimp and corn chowder!
Shrimp and Roasted Corn Chowder
A creamy and smoky shrimp and roast corn chowder; a perfect way to enjoy fresh corn from the cob.
ingredients
- 4 ears corn, kernels cut from the cobs with the cobs reserved
- 1/2 pound shrimp peeled and deviend with the shells reserved
- 4 cups chicken broth or chicken stock or shrimp stock
- 4 slices smoked bacon, cut into one inch pieces
- 1 onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 1/2 red pepper, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 teaspoon thyme, chopped
- 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1/4 cup flour (or rice flour for gluten-free)
- 1 large stewing potato (such as a red potato or white potato), cut into bite sized pieces
- 1/2 cup cream
- salt (or fish sauce), pepper and cayenne (or sriracha) to taste
directions
- Bring the broth, corn cobs and shrimp shells to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered, until the liquid becomes a little cloudy, about 20-30 minutes, strain and discard the solids and set the broth aside. (This step is optional but adds a ton of flavour to the chowder.)
- Meanwhile, cook the bacon in a large heavy bottom sauce pan over medium heat and set aside on paper towels to drain.
- Raise the heat to medium-high, add the corn and let it sit in place until it chars a bit, about 8 minutes, mix it, repeat and set aside.
- Reduce the heat back down to medium, add the onion, celery and pepper and saute until tender, about 7-10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, thyme and paprika and saute until fragrant, about a minute.
- Sprinkle on the flour and cook for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the broth, corn, and potato and simmer until the potato is tender, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add the cream and shrimp and simmer until the shrimp is cooked, about 2-3 minutes.
- Season to taste and serve garnished with the reserved bacon.
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Cauliflower Chowder
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Shrimp Creole Soup with Bacon and Cheddar Dumplings
Cajun Sweet Potato Seafood Chowder
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Shrimp and Feta Soup (aka Shrimp Saganaki Soup)
You're sure on a bacon kick! This looks wonderful, although my head is still stuck in the bacon jam clouds!
looks delicious! I may have to try this next week!
A mouthwatering chowder! Beautiful and really appetizing.
Cheers,
Rosa
Whoa this sounds amazing, and I love it's not heavily drowned in cream. I definitely need to work on my soup-making skills. Thank you for the inspiration.
Oh I'm so glad you made this! Now I want it. Of course.
This looks delicious and so seasonal – I am definitely trying it!
Some great ideas in here Kevin for building flavors. Lots of inspiration. How has your summer been since BHF in Seattle?
Your food always looks so good, Kevin! I'm in love with your photography, too! Mmmmmm 🙂
OMG! Yummy: Summer has been good but it is disappearing far too quickly! How has your summer been?
You don't add the bacon back in?
This chowder was amazing! Thanks for the recipe.
What flavor of broth..veggie, chicken?
Which type of broth do you use…chicken or seafood?
Looks delicious and the color is just glorious!
I love corn. I even eat them with only a cheese powder on it. This recipe would be a useful one. I'll have new dish to make with corn. Yum!
Perth Wedding Photographer
Just picked some corn at a local farm yesterday. This might be on the menu tonight.
Good morning, I featured this recipe on my blog today for my weekly seafood round-up. It looks great, thanks for allowing me to share! Here is the link: http://carriesexperimentalkitchen.blogspot.com/2012/08/week-31-seafood-frenzy-friday.html
A beautiful seasonal dish so much more interesting than a simple corn chowder. I especially love the use of shrimp with bacon and paprika. I'm featuring this post in today's Food Fetish Friday (with a link-back and attribution). I hope you have no objections and thanks for the inspiration…
Anonymous: You can use vegetable, chicken or shrimp broth.
Loved this soup! I had some leeks that I needed to use, so used them in place of the onion. I roasted the shrimp with olive oil and sea salt and then added them at the end. Simmering the broth with the corn cobs and shrimp shells – fantastic idea.
This is HANDS-DOWN the BEST corn chowder I have ever made/eaten. I owe it to three factors: fresh corn, smoked paprika, and the corn-cob and shrimp broth. I made a salad and baguette to go along it, but next time I'll leave the salad out. This chowder stands on it's own. Incredible meal and I'm so glad there's leftovers!
Fantastic soup! thank you for the recipe
This looks SO GOOD! I will definitely make this. Photography is fantastic!
I just made this and it's absolutely delicious!!!!
Just made this. I am so sensitive to salt lately so even though I didn't add any, I think it was salty (but delicious) – next time I will use low sodium broth and bacon. BF loved it though. I also only used 1/4 cream.
Made it today and it was delicious!
Thanks for some new ideas 🙂
Fabulous recipe! Found it through foodgawker. Simmering the corn cobs and shrimp shells really added tons of flavor. I added some fish to make it more substantial for a standalone dinner.
Dee-licious!!
the extra steps are not hard and so worth it!
I used frozen raw easy peel shrimp. Thaws quick and already deveined…I pulled off the shells and tails with ease and threw them in the broth.
Great recipe!
This recipe looks amazing….I can just tell that it's full of wonderful flavors…..yum!
Made this yummy chowder on this past rainy Halloween night in…and it was AMAZING. I followed the recipe exactly and it turned out perfect. I cannot wait to make this chowder again and again in the future!
This looks really good but I noticed that this recipe does not include nutritional information as many other of your recipes do. Could you perhaps add this? Thanks.
Chantelle A: Herre you go:
Serving Size 490 g
Amount Per Serving
Calories 292
Calories from Fat 62
Total Fat 6.8g
Saturated Fat 2.6
Trans Fat 0.0g
Cholesterol 130mg
Sodium 998mg
Potassium 797mg
Total Carbohydrates 35.5g
Dietary Fiber 4.4g
Sugars 6.0g
Protein 23.7g
Yum! Can't wait to try this!
http://www.biscuitsandburlap.com
Kevin~~I can't wait to make this! My great neighbor/friend and I take turns a couple of days a month making a dish of our choice for each each other. This is going to be my pick. Can't imagine them topping this! Kevin, your recipes are so fantastic and you have never steered me wrong.Thanks so much for all of the recipes, past, present and future!!
Kevin~~ Could I add a little bit of clam juice to the chicken broth I plan to use, or would it mess up the flavor profile? Sorry, I thought of this just as I'd hit the "publish" button. Thanks again!
cooks42: Thanks! I'm glad that you have been enjoying my recipes! Yes, you can add some clam juice to the chicken broth!
That looks lovely, though I'd prefer it without bacon. I live near Marché Jean-Talon in Montréal, and although we've had a cool, rainy summer, by now all the mid-summer and early autumn vegetables have arrived.
Yes, fish sauce of course!
It isn't too sweet? I find that can be a problem with corn dishes.
Hi Kevin,
This looks delicious, looking forward to trying it! I’m curious, if you don’t mind my asking, where does the bright red colour come from? It almost looks tomato-based, but clearly isn’t from the ingredients. Is that just the red pepper and paprika?
The red comes from the red pepper and paprika along with the charring of the corn and browning the vegetables which darkens the sauce.