Creamy Ham And Corn Chowder

Total Time: 50 mins Preparation Time: 5 mins Cook Time: 45 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 4
• 1 ham bone, with at least 1 cup of meat remaining on bone
• water, to cover
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups milk (whole milk preferred)
• 1 1/2 cups frozen corn or 1 (15 ounce) can corn
• 1 tablespoon dried onion flakes or 1/4 cup freshly minced onion
• 1 -2 clove garlic, minced
• salt and pepper, to taste
• paprika, to taste

Recipe

• 1 on a firm non-breakable surface, take a clean hammer and crack the middle of the ham bone so that marrow can escape during cooking.
• 2 place ham bone flat in the bottom of a pot and add enough water to just cover.
• 3 simmer over medium heat for 30 minutes.
• 4 remove bone and cut off the remaining tender ham meat; set meat aside.
• 5 turn up the heat on the ham broth and reduce down until you have about a couple of cups of broth, or to desired strength.
• 6 skim the fat from the broth.
• 7 melt butter in a large pan; remove from heat and mix in flour until smooth.
• 8 slowly add 1 cup milk, stirring constantly.
• 9 return pan to stove and cook on low heat until milk thickens.
• 10 stir the corn, the ham pieces you set aside earlier, dried minced onion, and minced garlic into thickened milk; then slowly stir in the remaining milk and the ham broth.
• 11 cook on low for about 15 minutes, but do not boil.
• 12 add salt, pepper, and paprika to taste.
• 13 *note: how much meat you leave on the bone is up to you, but i like to have a couple of cups of ham bits mixed into this chowder.
• 14 optional: you can add a cup of cooked, chopped potato chunks to the soup near the end of the cooking, if you like.