Corn and green chile chowder

This week, my sister is hosting BSI (Blogger Secret Ingredient) cooking contest and the ingredient this week is: Chiles!!

I was searching for recipes where I wouldn’t have to buy too many ingredients and when I found this recipe on Cooking Channel’s website, I had everything but the Poblano Chile, so made my decision easy!

I did vary a few things to make it a little healthier and lower in fat. I traded out whole milk for skim milk saving a whopping 253 calories and 30 grams of fat. And the original recipe called for 1/2 cup of whipping cream, I swapped out 1/2 cup fat free half and half saving 99 calories and 16 grams of fat for the whole recipe! I loved how this turned out with the changes, so you won’t even miss the extra calories and fat!

Corn and Green Chile Corn Chowder – Adapted from Cooking Channel

Ingredients:

3 slices bacon, chopped
1/2 white onion, diced
3 cups frozen corn
4 cups skim milk
1 pound baking potatoes, peeled and diced (I used 4 potatoes which was a little more, it was 23 oz.)
1 tsp. salt
1/2 cup fat free half and half
1 large Poblano pepper (roasted and diced)*you can also use a New Mexican pepper or Anaheim)
black pepper to taste
2 TB. fresh chives (for garnish)

In a large pot add the bacon and cook until browned. Remove the cooked bacon from the pot and reserve as a garnish. Add the diced onion into the same pot and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile in a blender, add 1 cup of the corn and 2 cups of skim milk and puree that until smooth. Add that to the pot with the onions. Add the rest of the milk, corn and potatoes and cook until the potatoes are tender (about 20 minutes). Add the fat free half and half and the diced Poblano pepper and simmer for another 5 minutes.

Serve with a little of the cooked bacon and chopped chives (or I think chopped green onion would work here too!)

And the nutritional information isn’t that bad either. For each cup the calories are:

It’s not too late to enter the BSI contest, you have until tomorrow and you can e-mail your recipe with picture to my sister Biz at bdl319@gmail.com.

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