DIY Disney Recipe: Nebraska Corn Chowder from Storytellers Cafe | the disney food blog (2024)

This week, guest chef Carol returns with one of my FAVORITE recipes! This time she cooks up the Corn Chowder from the Storytellers Café at the Grand Californian in the Disneyland Resort!

So, I’d never been to Disneyland California until just recently! I know, I know, but please hear me out before you judge! I grew up in Central Florida…in Walt Disney World’s backyard.

But recently, I made my first trip to Disneyland! It was just like the commercials…you know with all the families making memories together! We were there with my husband’s family including our two cute, adorable li’l nieces! I couldn’t wait to wear those fun Family Reunion pins.

The first thing I did when I found out we were going was make my foodie list…of course! I also dug into my Disney cookbooks to start making fun dishes at home to get us excited about the trip.

I was excited to find several fun recipes from Disneyland California in my Cooking with Mickey and the Disney Chefs cookbook. The Storytellers Cafe Corn Chowder definitely caught my eye, since my grocery store is full of fresh, sweet corn right now. The recipe is served fresh every day in the Storytellers Café at Disneyland’s Grand Californian Resort, and it’s been on the menu since the restaurant opened.

This recipe is super easy to make and can be ready to serve the same night you make it! So, let’s get started:

Ingredients

This is a great one to make during the Summer when you’ve got all kinds of fresh sweet corn at the farmers’ markets and grocery stores!

-4 ears fresh corn, unshucked
-2 slices bacon, diced
-1 tbsp diced onion
-1 tsp chopped garlic
-1 Yukon Gold potato, peeled and diced
-4 cups chicken stock
-6 tbsp butter
-6 tbsp all-purpose flour
-2 cups heavy cream
-1 cup pulled chicken meat
-4-6 slices bacon for garnish
-Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
-Hot sauce, to taste
-Chopped Cilantro, for garnish

Yield: 4-8 servings

Step 1: Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Step 2: To roast corn, put whole ears in their husks on baking sheet. On a second baking sheet, place 2 chicken breasts and 4-6 strips of bacon. Put both baking sheets into preheated oven for 25-30 minutes.

Step 3: Set aside crisp bacon to use for garnish later. Take 2 forks and pull cooked chicken.

Step 4: Cool briefly, then peel back the husks and cut the kernels off the cobs; set aside.

Step 5: Dice two pieces of raw bacon.

Step 6: Sauté diced raw bacon in a big pot.

Step 7: Dice 1/4 of onion and 1 clove of garlic.

That will give you just over the 1 tbsp and 1 tsp respectively.

Step 8: Drain all but 1 tbsp of fat and add onion and garlic and sauté until transparent but not brown.

(I didn’t drain my pot…wasn’t much more than 1 tbsp of fat in the pot from 2 pieces of bacon.)

Step 9: Peel and dice Yukon Gold potato.

Step 10: Add the roasted corn and potato to the pot.

Step 11: Add chicken stock to pot. Bring to a simmer.

Step 12: Meanwhile, in a separate sauté pan, melt butter over medium heat. Add flour, incorporating with a wire whisk until the mixture is smooth. Cook 3-4 minutes, stirring, until mixture begins to loosen slightly.

Step 13: Let mixture cool.

Step 14: Add the cooled butter/flour mixture to the simmering broth, incorporating with a wire whisk. Stir often to keep from sticking to the bottom of pan. Simmer 30-40 minutes.

This is the thickening agent for your chowder…it’s how your dish starts to become a thick chowder instead of a regular broth based soup!

Step 15: Add the heavy cream and pulled chicken meat, salt, pepper, and hot sauce. Simmer for another 10 minutes.

Step 16: Ladle into bowls and top with garnish of bacon and fresh chopped cilantro.

step 17: Serve with a fresh salad and fresh rolls.

Enjoy!!!

This is a fantastic dish to serve your guests on the back deck at your summer kickoff party! Your family and friends will love you! Here’s to the Summer, DFB fans!

A Few Lessons I Learned

As with all recipes, you usually find helpful ways to make it easier while you’re in the process of cooking. This section is filled with helpful hints that I learned while making this recipe and doing research on some of the ingredients! I hope they help you, too!

-I made the recipe in the order listed in the cookbook, but I found it would have been much easier to sautée the butter and flour mixture in the prep time just after putting the corn, chicken and bacon into the oven and before starting the recipe. That way it has plenty of time to cool it down before adding it to the chowder.

-The recipe just calls for one cup of pulled chicken meat. I added the part about baking the chicken in the oven, because it takes the same amount of time to cook as roasting the corn. My family aren’t fans of dark meat, so I find that it’s easier to cook the chicken breasts to use for my chowder. You can also buy a precooked chicken and pull the chicken that way, too.

-I could only find small Yukon Gold potatoes, so I used two small potatoes in place of the one potato from the recipe ingredient list.

–Throw the pans of corn, chicken and bacon into the oven for 25-30 minutes in the morning when you get up and are getting ready. That way that step is done when you get home at night and you can jump right into making the chowder!

Does this sound like a dish you’d like to try at home? Let us know in the comments below!