Spicy Creamed Corn

It seems like there are only a few side dishes in my cooking arsenal that go with Mexican food: refried beans, rice, and chips and salsa (or guacamole). 

I ran across this recipe (which goes really well with the Cumin and Lime Roasted Pork Tenderloin) in my Rachel Ray recipe book.  It sounded amazing to me…probably because the same old side-standbys are getting old.  Plus this dish has a lot of color and brightness to it that screams summer.

Spicy Creamed Corn

Adapted from Rachel Ray’s 365:No Repeats

Ingredients

1 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 large yellow onion

1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped

1 orange bell pepper

10-oz box frozen corn kernels or 2 fresh ears

1 teaspoon flour

3/4 cup of chicken broth

1/4 cup heavy cream

Salt and Pepper

Directions

1)      Preheat a skillet over medium-high heat with the olive oil and the butter.  Add the onion, jalapeno, bell pepper, chopped garlic, corn kernels, and salt and pepper.  Cook for 4 to 5 minutes or until the onions are tender. 

2)      Sprinkle with the flour and continue to cook for one minute. 

3)      Whisk in the chicken stock and heavy cream.  Bring the corn up to a simmer and then lower the heat to medium low and cook until it is thick and creamy, about five minutes.  Finish with salt and pepper.

I loved this dish.  It was much better than what I was expecting.  The onions still had kind of a crunch to them, which worked really well with this dish.  I was scared of the heat and so I didn’t add the entire jalapeno pepper, but found that by doing that, the dish didn’t really live up to the “spicy” creamed corn that was advertised in the title.  I think the cream balances out the spicy aspect, so if you like a lot of heat, you may want to double the amount.  I thought this was a really fun twist on a so-so canned staple in many people’s houses.  Definitely didn’t seem as heavy as canned cream corn.