If you are South African, you would have probably eaten a version of this soup before. It would most likely use a packet of Knorr Thick Vegetable soup mix. This recipe is an homage to that recipe but uses made from scratch ingredients. No soup mix in sight! Tell me if you think its a close enough match in the comments!

Creamy Chicken & Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

• 1/2 onion, chopped
• 1 – 2 green chillies, sliced
• 1 chicken breast, cubed
• 1 potato, peeled and cubed
• 2 carrots, cubed
• 2 tsp flour, heaped
• generous knob of butter (approx 1 – 2 Tb)
• 1/4 – 1/2 tsp white pepper or ground black pepper
• 1/2 tin cream style sweetcorn
• 1/2 tin water
• 1 tin milk
• handful of peas
• chopped coriander, for serving

Method:

1. Saute the chopped onion and chilli in butter. Be careful not to brown the onion or burn the butter.
2. Add the cubed chicken, carrot and potato. Cook.
3. Add the flour and cook until you can see it take on a light brown colour – again be careful not to burn.
4. Take the 1/2 tin of sweetcorn and fill it with water (1/2 tin). Empty it into the pot and use the same tin and pour milk into it (1 tin). Stir and let this start to boil. Add the seasoning.
5. Empty the milk into the pot, make sure to swirl so any sweetcorn is mixed in with the milk (waste not, want not).
6. Let this come to the boil, stirring while it does so. You should not have lumps in your soup!
7. You can adjust the consistency of the soup with more milk or water and adjust the seasoning accordingly.
8. Add the peas 5 minutes before serving and chopped coriander.

Tips:

The soup will thicken on standing, keep this in mind as you will have to adjust the consistency. You can use prawns or shrimp if you want to change the protein. If you are worried about lumps add the liquid slowly and allow to thicken just like you would a béchamel (white) sauce.