Hey everyone! It’s Carrisa guest posting for Isabel today. She’s busy running around Canada the local shopping malls having a great time. So not fair.

So here we are, the day after Thanksgiving. Maybe you are one of those people who has the day off and yet you get up even earlier than usual to do some of that Black Friday shopping. Or maybe you are still in bed for a couple more hours because you have to go to work. Hopefully you aren’t one of those that has to get up at 3am to go work retail because there are crazy people out there getting up at 4am to go shopping. I would hate for you to have to deal with all that.

But if you are the luckiest of the bunch you not only have the day off, but you actually use it to sleep in and watch tv. And eat leftovers. You have your priorities in order. And while eating a leftover bowl full of turkey with gravy and mashed potatoes sounds delicious, I’m here to offer you another alternative for that leftover meat.

Chicken Turkey Corn Chowder

Ingredients:

• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken turkey breast (you can use dark meat as well)
• 2 14oz cans of creamed corn
• 1 14oz can of chicken broth
• 1.5 cups milk
• 4 tablespoons of butter
• 2 8oz blocks of cream cheese (don’t be one of those fat free cream cheese users. it’s not right.)
• 1/2 cup of chipotle salsa. (you could use regular salsa, but the chipotle is so much tastier)

If you are using leftover meat you obviously don’t have to boil it first. But if you decide to keep this recipe and use it later on with chicken then yes, throw the meat in a pot of boiling water until it’s cooked. Probably about 20 minutes for white meat.

In a large pot melt the butter and stir in the chopped onion. Saute on medium high heat for a couple of minutes. While that’s going on, take your blocks of cream cheese and cube them up. And I really do mean it when I say don’t use fat free cream cheese. Maybe 1/3 less fat would be ok, but the fat free I just can’t see it being able to melt as well.

Once the cream cheese is cubed throw it in the pot. Reduce the heat to medium. We are wanting to melt the cream cheese into the onions, but not scorch it. It’s going to look like a big ole blobby mess. When the cream cheese is mostly melted add in the 2 cans of creamed corn. Keep stirring. As the corn heats up it will help the cream cheese along. Then add the chicken broth and the milk. Keep stirring it all so that everything just kinds of melts together. You can even get out a whisk if you’d like. Then add the chicken and the salsa. If your chowder seems too thick you can add more milk or chicken broth. It’s technically a chowder, but if you want it to make into more a soup you go right ahead.

Now you want to be careful not to scorch the chowder. So medium or medium-low heat is best. And also stir often. Once the chowder has had time to simmer and get all hot and stuff it should be ready for eating. Start to finish I can make this in about 30 minutes.

This soup is best served with tortilla chips. Lots of them.