My Favorite Soup (for now)

Chicken Corn Chowder

Wow.  I love this soup so much that it's getting its own special post.  One of my favorite food categories is Soups.  I'll eat soups in cold or hot weather, although I'll admit they taste better when it's cold and they're warming me up from the inside out.  In Hawaii we'd have to fake a cold weather day by turning our air-conditioner really high when it was cloudy outside.  Sometimes it felt Fall-ish...maybe.

Recently I discovered the world of Recipe Blogs and let's just say that I'm a fan.  I love to cook (and eat) and I'm pretty good in a great-at-following-the-recipe, not so great-at-coming-up-with-my-own-dishes way, so when someone just hands me new recipes to try on an almost-daily basis, with accompanying mouth-watering pictures, I'm a happy girl. 

Two of my favorites are Our Best Bites and My Kitchen Cafe, and I'm totally jealous of these ladies.  They are all LDS stay-at-home moms who try out new recipes, take photos, write about it and make money!  OK, I don't know how much money, but seriously, what an fabulous job!  And they just fell into it; they started the recipe blogs for family and friends and they grew from there.  Awesome.

But no, I'm definitely not trying to do that for myself, I'm just passing along a place to grab some new, tasty recipes.

So in my love for this soup, which I've seriously made 3 or 4 times a month since October, I thought I'd try my hand at food photographry (by the way, I stink at it), and share a delicious, EASY recipe.

All right, let's get on with it!

Start by chopping (this is the hardest step) celery, onion, red bell pepper, jalapeno and garlic, and then saute.  Look at all those pretty colors!  Take a whiff of that smell because it's AMAZING! 

Then add chicken stock and flour to thicken it, chicken and corn.  This is really hard stuff.  Stir.  Add milk, and this is the best part: cream cheese.  Taste it.  Add salt and pepper if you'd like.

*A note about the last picture*

The recipe calls for the jalapenos to be seeded and the membranes removed.  Doing this takes away the heat of the jalapeno, but leaves the yummy flavor.  However I LIKE the spicy jalapeno heat in this soup, so I try to leave some seeds and membrane in.  But jalapenos, and all peppers, are tricky because some are way hotter than others.  I always taste my soup first, and if it isn't spicy enough, I add a few shakes of cayenne pepper.  This is totally optional and based on personal preference.

OK, so there you have it.  Easy-peasy, right?

Oh yes, you definitely need some cheese to sprinkle on top.  I prefer Monterrey-Jack, but cheddar is great too. 

ENJOY!

Chicken Corn Chowder

Recipe from My Kitchen Cafe

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 stalks of celery, finely chopped

1 red bell pepper, finely chopped

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 jalapeno, finely chopped, seeds and membrane removed (this is important for flavor - but doesn't add heat because the seeds and membranes are removed and it is cooked with the other veggies)

1/4 cup thinly sliced or cooked chopped ham

3 cloves garlic, minced

2 (14-oz.) cans chicken broth

3 tablespoons flour

3 ears of fresh corn kernels or 1 1/2 cups frozen corn kernels

2 large chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

4 oz. softened cream cheese

1 cup milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Place olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Saute celery, bell pepper, onion and jalapeno until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic and ham; cook for another 3 minutes. Whisk the broth with the flour in a liquid measuring cup or bowl and then stir into the soup. Stir in the corn and chicken. Bring to a low boil and reduce heat. Whisk together the cream cheese and milk in a large bowl until smooth (I had a difficult time getting my cream cheese to completely whisk into the milk so my soup had some minor small lumps but next time, I'll soften the cream cheese until almost melted in the microwave). Whisk the cream cheese/milk mixture into the soup along with the salt, pepper and cheddar cheese. Simmer on low until ready to serve.