Thick, chunky chowder has always been a humble food made with whatever is around. Looking through recipes, we found none delivered everything we sought in ours: velvety texture, unambiguous corn flavor, plentiful, plump kernels, and delicacy. We began our search for velvety Corn Chowder and unambiguous corn flavor with fresh corn. For depth, we cooked the onions and corn in rendered bacon fat. This technique added toasty, slightly caramelized flavors to the corn, and by extension, the chowder. Tasters preferred red potatoes in the chowder, which retained their shape and added a pretty gleam of pink. To thicken the chowder and intensify flavor, instead of a traditional flour and butter roux, we pureed canned corn with some chicken broth. This produced a golden, satiny chowder base with a vibrant fresh corn taste.