How to Thicken Corn Chowder Without Flour

Learn how you can make a delicious corn chowder with the perfect texture without needing to add any flour.

I think it's very rewarding as a soup maker when you can get your soup thick enough without having to add any flour to thicken it, whether that be via a slurry or roux.

Not that adding flour is cheating, but there is really something cool about not having to need it. I have a friend who prides himself on not adding powdered pectin to his jam.

For those that need to avoid wheat flour or those that just want to go without, let me show you how it's done.

Jump to:

• 🛒 Ingredients
• 📋 Instructions
• 👩‍🍳 What to Serve with Corn Chowder
• 🌽 Corn Recipes
• Corn Chowder Without Flour

🛒 Ingredients

Here is what you will need to make this recipe:

• 6 ears of fresh corn
• 2 small to medium sized shallots
• 4 tablespoons butter
• 1 hot pepper your choice
• 1 ½ lbs small or new potatoes cut in half
• 3 small carrots diced
• 1 cup heavy cream
• kosher salt to taste
• freshly cracked black pepper to taste
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh dill optional

🥔 RELATED - What are New Potatoes?

Corn chowder of course is all about the corn. Sure you could use frozen, but you are never going to beat the freshy picked corn in the summer time. But feel free to use frozen if you are making this in the middle of the winter.

You can use onions instead of shallots. I am big fan of shallots. I like their small size and flavor. Plus when I made this recipe I got some amazingly fresh shallots at a farmers market.

You can use any hot pepper you like for this recipe, but let tell you about the one I used. It's called a Mariachi pepper. It's a little bit larger in size than your average jalapeno. What I loved about this pepper is that adds a calm heat to the soup. It's not too spicy that it overtakes any other flavor. It's a pleasant heat that does linger but never overwhelms.

These peppers are hard to find in the regular grocery store. I got them at a farmers market in Toledo, Ohio. The go to hot pepper - the Jalapeno would be perfectly fine as well. Or if you can get your hands on a Hatch Chile that would be great, especially if you roast it before adding to the soup.

📋 Instructions

The first thing you will need to do is remove the corn from the cobs. DO NOT throw out the cobs once the corn is removed. You are going to use them to make a stock for the soup.

Make your life easier and remove the corn right in the pot you will use for the soup. If you try to do this on a cutting board the corn is going to fly everywhere.

Add your corn, peppers, carrots (not pictured below), butter and shallots to the pot. Cook until the corn is tender.

Remove the corn from the pot. You will have some brown bites sticking to the bottom of the pot. Perfect. This is going to add more flavor as you add in enough water to cover the bottom of the pot and then scrap up all that brown stuff. It will add a lot of flavor and make your pot easier to clean later.

Once you have down that, add in those cobs I told you to save earlier. Cover with just enough water to submerge them. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for 30 minutes. This is your corn stock.

After the 30 minutes. remove the cobs. Now you can throw them out!

Add in your potatoes. Bring back to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cook the potatoes until they are tender.

Once that happens add back in the corn, peppers, and carrots. Stir in the heavy cream. Add in the dill if using.

If you wish to thicken it even more what you can do is remove some of the soup form the pot. Run it through blender or use a stick blender and then add it back into the soup.

You can also use a stick blender right in the pot itself. Go low until it's thick enough without pureeing the whole soup.

👩‍🍳 What to Serve with Corn Chowder

Here are some ideas of what to serve with your corn chowder.

• Grilled cheese sandwich - why does tomato soup get all the fun!
• Great bread - I am not talking sliced bread that comes in a bag. I am talking about rustic bread that has crust that you bite into
• BLT - Tomatoes and corn are in season at the exact same time.
• Bacon or Pancetta on top
• Serve it in a bread bowl. You can get them from some bakeries.
• Salad with a fruity vinaigrette
• A grilled steak

🌽 Corn Recipes

Here are some other recipes with corn in them.

• Elote Creamed Corn
• Honey Cornbread Crackers
• Ramped Up Corn
• Hatch Chile Creamed Corn