Help! Made a chicken/corn/black bean chowder and added habanero....

[Rowdyboy]

FARRRR too much habanero.

The chowder is delicious but inedible. I like REALLY hot food but this is over the line even for me.

Is there a rescue or should I throw it away?

[Duer 157099]

1. Can you add lots of heavy cream?

that's the only thing I can think of...

[Rowdyboy]

2. There's no milk or cream in the base recipe...Its water, wine, and chicken

broth. I could certainly add fat free half-and-half or skim milk if that would help cut the heat.

Its really good and I hate to waste it

[SoCalDem]

3. Experiment on half of it..

try adding some potatoes.. perhaps they will absorb some of the heat.. or just dilute it with more unsalted chicken stock.. If that works, you can try it on the other half and you'll just have way more than you wanted..

I did that once with some lasagna sauce I was making, I read the handwritted recipe wrong, and used 2 TBSP of ground red pepper instead of 2TSP of crushed red pepper.. yoweeeee.. I kept tweaking it until I ended up with about a gallon of sauce (froze most of it for later)..

[Rowdyboy]

4. I've heard that about potatoes before....Its certainly worth trying

Thanks for the idea about dividing the soup-I'll try it. I'd hate to lose it all because its such a stupid waste. I despise wasting good food but I tend to do it more often than I wish. Its a bitch to chop, dice, heat and simmer soup for HOURS just to ruin a great dish by adding too much pepper heat at the very end.

I feel really dumb. I've cooked 35 years for myself. I ought to be more careful by now.

[Duer 157099]

5. I know it would be a major change to the recipe

but it's the fat that offsets the capsaicin, so fat free wouldn't work.

Just think of it as a creamy version of the original? Might not be so bad actually.

[Rowdyboy]

6. I think that somewhere, subconsciously, I knew that.....Howabout this....

I forget the "fatfree" 1/2 and 1/2 and go with the real deal-whole milk. My guy and I are on our own weird diet and exercise program but I really don't want this dish to ruin because of the heat. I worked too hard and its too good. If some whole milk or a little real 1/2 and 1/2 will save this particular soup, I'll work the calories off another way.

I likes my soup.

[chefgirl]

7. My suggestion

Dilute the soup by at least half, and start over. That is, divide it in half, and add water or chicken stock to each pot (and more corn, black beans, etc)to equal the original amount of liquid.

You'll end up with two batches, but if its that good, then it will be a blessing in disguise. You can always freeze one batch for later.

The half and half or heavy cream will help a bit, but I would still reccommend diluting it.

-chef-

[wakemeupwhenitsover]

10. That is a cool idea.

I will definitely remember that next time I over-heat a soup/stew/chili, etc. Which hopefully after my last fiasco will never happen again, but unfortunately hot sometimes happens.

Thanks for sharing.

[SoCalDem]

12. That was my suggestion too.. after my lasagna fiasco it worked.

see above for the sad details.. I always check for details now..and often add the "unremoveable" stuff last...after checking one last time, if the recipe is new to me :)

[yellerpup]

8. I did the same thing once

but it was for a party! I rushed out and bought more ingredients and started all over from scratch. For seasoning, I added one cup of the original batch to the new ingredients and it was still hot enough to make your nose run on the first bite. I like really hot food, too, but habaneros dial up the heat like no other pepper. I froze the rest of the original batch under the label "chili starter" after using just that one cup. I had chili starter for months and it never lost its heat.

[Warpy]

9. You can try acids

like vinegar or lemon or lime juice. You can serve it with lots of tortillas or rice. You can buzz it in the blender, freeze it, and use it next summer to keep deer and rabbits from eating up your garden.

Habanero isn't called "Yucatan Killer" for nothing. Often, just a tiny sliver of fresh pepper will be enough for a whole pot of stew.

It may be unsalvageable. You may be able to wash the sauce off the chicken and use the chicken shredded in tacos. That would be my main suggestion. Flavor often doesn't penetrate through chicken, which is why chicken always tastes like chicken no matter the cuisine.

The only thing I ever used habaneros for was buzzed in a blender with oil, water, and lecithin to use as a homemade capsaicin topical treatment.

[hobbit709]

11. If it don't burn

it ain't hot enough for me.

[Warpy]

13. If my eyelids don't sweat, it's too bland

However, loading it with habanero chile can make it inedible.

There were lots of good suggestions here for salvaging the stuff.

[hobbit709]

14. It don't make it inedible

it just makes sure you wimps won't eat up my leftovers. Try my Thermonuclear Hot Sauce when you're in Austin.