Sometimes necessity can lead to a good discovery.

My wife and I had some corn on the cob left over so she decided to make corn chowder. As she began to make it, she discovered we had no potatoes. We just did grocery shopping yesterday so we didn't want to go to the store again.

Then I realized we did have some Tater Tots in the freezer. So we dumped those in the chowder. We knew they would disintegrate, but figured we would still have the potato flavor needed in the chowder.

The wonderful discovery was what a great thickener they turned out to be. Next time I make beef stew, I'm going to try some in that for a thickener. Sorry, we rarely go by a recipe or measure ingredients when we make stews chowders and sauces, so you'll have to experiment with amounts. They broke up almost immediately, so you can always start with a few then add more as needed.