I came across this Chipotle Buttered Corn Recipe on the Tasting Table by Chef Christopher Lee of Sophia’s a Philadelphia Restaurant. I know Chipotle goes amazing with corn but Star Anise is a flavor I never thought of to go with Chipotle and corn. I did some research and I tried to find other recipes combining Star Anise and Chipotle. In my search I discovered the EXACT SAME RECIPE is posted on Genius Kitchen by Cluich..?…..I don’t know if Cluich and Chef Christopher Lee are the same person or not???????? (thought that was interesting) I don’t know if either Chef Christopher Lee or Cluich would approve or want to have anything to do with what I’ve done with Star Anise, Chipotle and Corn but I can tell you that it’s delicious and great. I take what I did a little further. What might be even better is the amazing corn stock that you get if you make the dish my way. The leftover Chipotle Corn Stock is great for chipotle mashed potatoes. Just boil the potatoes in that stock and after the potatoes are fork tender add enough stock to make them moist and then they are delicious with almost no fat or dairy (or you can add some butter to make them a little rich and better). The other thing I did with the Chipotle Corn Stock was to blend butternut squash into it. I made a Chipotle laced puree and later thinned it down with vegetable broth to make a soup.

Ingredients for about 6 servings

8 ears of corn

4 oz unsalted butter

2 star anise

2 Tablespoons chipotle in adobo sauce – chipotle peppers chopped fine

1 meyer lemon cut in half

2 Tablespoons kosher salt

4 cloves garlic

1 onion cut in 8 slices

8 cups water

1/2 cup chopped scallions

Directions

Set your oven to 350 degrees F.

Get out two large pans (1/2 buffet pans) and lay out the corn and ingredients just like the photo below.

Four ears of corn in each pan and half the ingredients (except scallions) in each pan.

Add the water – 4 cups in each pan.

Cover very tightly with foil.

In the oven they go for two hours at 350 degrees F.

After two hours pull the pans out and carefully loosen the foil – WATCH OUT! – there will be hot steam – but leave the foil hang over.

Let the pans cool on the counter for an hour. Then throw out the star anise and the lemon.

After an hour you can serve the corn….I think it’s better on the cob……You will get the most amazing taste like you can’t imagine….very sweet juice you can suck out of the cob that’s infused with crazy flavors. Most people I know prefer the corn removed from the cob. So you can move the kernels and mix with sliced scallions. Either way it’s delicious and you can’t do any wrong.

DON’T THROW OUT THE LIQUID FROM THE CORN.

Take it and boil peeled potatoes in it…..(used vegetables and all except the lemon and star anise you already threw out)

The potatoes will be delicious. Remove the potatoes from the pot. Make them more delicious and mash them with some of the strained liquid…….add a little butter if you want and these potatoes will be super yummy!

You can get one more use out of the liquid if you want……

Peel and roast up cubed butternut squash. Puree it up with some of this still very flavorful liquid. Now you have a flavorful figure friendly Butternut squash puree.

Maybe you’d enjoy the butternut squash more as a cream free soup. Just add vegetable stock and a small amount of finely chopped and sautéed carrot, celery and onion and puree again. You might want to add a small amount of more finely chopped chipotle pepper. I added a few peas for color and some really cute butternut squash pasta I found at Trader Joes.

The Anise Infused Chipotle Corn is Worth a Fork!

A special Thanks to The Tasting Table with Chef Christopher Lee’s Recipe and To the same recipe at Genius Kitchen by Cluich. That recipe inspired me and helped me to create all these dishes.