Chicken Corn Soup perfect summer dish

Corn Soup is one of many items to sample during the season of summer fundraisers.  Bowls of the tasty soup are found on menus alongside oyster patties, crab cakes and homemade pies during summer months and into autumn. Each organization has its own recipe and many varieties are out there for the sampling. Look for volunteer fire departments, church bazars, and community organizations to find the your favorite. Make it at home and add your own seasonings and other fresh vegetables. Enjoy.

My Chicken Corn Soup is a combination of recipes that others have shared with me or recipes I’ve found in my vintage boxes. Several recipes don’t use chicken as an ingredient, but recipes that those that do, seem to have more flavor.

Most recipes date from the 1930s and 1940s but the earliest recipe probably came with the first crop of corn harvested by farmers and before them, Native American tribes.

Chicken Corn Soup

• 1 whole chicken
• 4 quarts cold water
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 cup celery and leaves, chopped
• 1 quart corn, fresh or frozen
• Salt
• Pepper

Cook chicken; strain broth. Chop chicken meat and add to broth. Add corn, onion, celery and seasonings. Serve.

Add ½ cup shredded carrots for color and a cup of fresh peas if available.

Optional time savers: use a crock-pot to cook the chicken or shred meat from precooked roasted chicken. Substitute chicken stock or a combination of chicken and beef stock for broth.

Soup Hints:

A slice of lemon in black bean soup will sharpen the flavor as well as enhance the looks of the cup of soup.

Rub the bottom of the soup cup with a sliced whole garlic to accent the flavor of navy bean soup.

Add slice pimientos (without the liquid) to asparagus soup just before removing from fire to serve. Do not cook pimientos in soup for this will destroy the asparagus flavor.

Sequoia Guild Recipes, Sanger, California 1966