Another Soup: Corn and Green Chili Bisque
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(Photos updated 12/14/11)
Another soup? Yep. I promise I do make things other than soups and stews, but lately I have been making standby types of dishes that have already made it to the blog. On Sundays, I like to play around more with stews and soups.
When I worked downtown, I ate Au Bon Pain’s soup fairly frequently for lunch. Our workplace cafeteria featured a couple of ABP’s soups daily, and the restaurant itself was just a couple blocks away. I always really liked this one soup in particular—corn and green chili bisque. It’s sort of like a spicy corn chowder, but better.
I decided to try and recreate that soup tonight, or at least a similar one. Now, I will throw out the disclaimer that I haven’t worked downtown in over two years—meaning, I haven’t had this soup in over two years. So, I can honestly I say I don’t really remember exactly what it tasted like. But, obviously I knew it had corn and green chiles in it. It was a bisque so it was slightly creamy and pureed. I looked at the published ingredients online, which helped a bit, and ran with the idea.
In my not so humble opinion, I did a pretty damn good job. This soup turned out great! It was very flavorful and had a good texture. I roasted the corn to give it more flavor, and I added some masa harina in with the stock to thicken it up a bit and add a little more corn flavor to the soup. This is a slightly spicy soup, so you can adjust the amount of peppers, etc. to suit your taste. My husband and I really enjoyed it.
2012 UPDATE: I recently had this soup from Au Bon Pain for the first time in over 5 years. And you know what? I MUCH prefer my version. I think it has better flavor and more heat (which I like). The Au Bon Pan version is a touch creamier and more bisque-y but I love the texture of this soup as I make it.
Another Soup: Corn and Green Chili Bisque
Ingredients
- 1.5 Tbsp butter
- 1 onion, chopped
- 3-4 large anaheim or hatch chile peppers, chopped
- 1 jalapeno, minced
- 1 red bell pepper, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1.5 lbs. fresh tomatillos or 1 (28 oz.) can tomatillos, cored and coarsely chopped
- 1 tsp. ground cumin
- 1 tsp. chili powder
- 1/2 tsp. oregano
- 2 cups roasted corn*
- 4 cups vegetable or chicken broth
- 1/4 cup masa harina
- 3/4 cup cream or half and half
Directions
- In a stockpot or Dutch oven, melt the butter. Cook the onion and all the peppers over
medium heat until tender. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant, about 30 seconds. - Add the tomatillos, cumin, oregano, chili powder and salt and pepper to taste. Cover and
simmer over low heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. - Add 1 cup of the corn. Add some of the broth and then use your immersion blender to process the mixture into a thick puree.
- Mix the masa harina with the remaining chicken broth until it’s dissolved and then add it to the pot along with the remaining corn.* Increase the heat and then simmer for 15
minutes. Add the cream or milk, heat through, and season to taste.
*I typically cut the corn kernels off 3 large or 4 smaller ears and then toss with canola oil, salt, and pepper on a rimmed baking sheet and roast at 425 for about 10-15 minutes. You can add the cobs to the sauce while it's simmering for more corn flavor!
I am making this for dinner tonight! I looks and sounds delicious!
This sounds amazing! I adore green chiles…and Au Bon Pain! 😉 The hospital I used to work at had one and I frequented it, for sure!
I spent weeks looking for tomatillos to make this recipe, and it was worth it. Delicious!
That’s great to hear, Lauren!