Summer Comfort Food

Chef Laura's Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup-c.tif

Photo by Laura Owen

Posted Wednesday, September 18, 2024 8:00 pm

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By Laura Owen

During one of our recent rainy days, I was daydreaming about a good, comforting meal. I was thinking about the summer’s past and what I looked forward to the most. Vine-ripe tomatoes and sweet corn dominated those memories.

I grew up in South Central Pennsylvania (York), but my grandparents lived in Rehoboth Beach Delaware. Grams ran the “Evergreen Cottages,” their three little seasonal rentals. My Uncle had a fresh fish market across the highway where he sold blue crabs, lobsters, and fish right off the boats. My grandfather would go fishing or “help” at the fish market. There was a produce stand attached to the fish market where Pop would take the “leftover” produce. Mostly it was stuff that was bruised or at the end of its shelf life. Grams would clean it all up and it would end up on the dinner table. I remember sliced tomatoes with salt and pepper as our “vegetable” with dinner and then more sliced tomatoes with a sprinkle of sugar for dessert!

One of my favorite summer meal memories is Chicken and Sweet Corn soup. (Did you know there are more chickens in Delaware than people?) When I make this soup, it is more like a stew - chock full of tender chicken, sweet corn, and veggies. A whole chicken is poached in water, cooled, and shredded. The soup itself starts with diced and sautéed onion, carrot and celery. Once soft, I add the cooking liquid from the chicken. Then come more diced veggies: vine-ripe tomatoes, potatoes, and sweet corn. If lucky enough to have great corn on the cob, I cut it off the cob and then throw the cobs into the soup too. The corn cobs impart a bright flavor, infusing all that great corn milk into the soup (dispose of them before serving). I use dried parsley, oregano, and bay leaf in this soup, but it can also be flavored with basil, rosemary, tarragon, thyme, or whatever you like.

The soup needs to simmer for just an hour or so. When it comes time to serve, some crusty bread is the perfect accompaniment. And I like just a touch of distilled white vinegar drizzled in my soup at the table; it really brings out all those great summer flavors.

Here’s what you need: one whole chicken, one sweet onion, four carrots, two celery stalks, 3 or 4 ripe tomatoes, 2 or 3 cobs of corn, and some Yukon gold potatoes. When I made this recently, I did not use all the chicken in the soup - I had enough left to make a nice batch of chicken salad. So, one chicken in the pot gave me about 12 portions of soup and six portions of chicken salad, not bad.

I hope this evokes happy memories of family and summer dinners. What brings those thoughts back for you? Whatever your fond memories are, enjoy the last of summer and our quiet time here in Paradise. Bon Appetit!

Chef Laura lives on and loves Marco Island. She is the owner of LBeeO’s Hospitality Services LLC, offering weekly meal prep, personal chef services, culinary demonstrations, and light catering in Marco Island, Goodland, Isles of Capri and South Naples. She can be reached at laura@lbeeos.com.

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