Chorizo Corn Chowder

Last night was a dinner of leftovers turned into something I'll definitely try to make again. Earlier this week I had made chorizo tacos and corn on the grill. The chorizo was from a Mexican market, super spicy with that alarming orange hue. We had lots of meat leftover as well and grilled corn that I removed from the cob. So last night I decided to make a chowder of sorts because I also had some cream leftover from a weekend adventure with a Grand Marnier ganache. The result was deliciously spicy and chowdery...

I used:

• About 2 links worth of chorizo, removed from their casing and minced in a pan
• 2-3 cups of grilled or roasted sweet corn, the grilling brings out the sweetness
• 2 smallish red skinned potatoes
• 1 bell pepper (orange)
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 quart of chicken broth
• 1/2 cup of milk
• 1/2 cup of *heavy cream
• Dried thyme, oregano, Adobo seasoning and black pepper
• A handful of cilantro roughly chopped
• Crumbled queso fresco

The part I did the night before:

Remove the chorizo from it's casing and start mincing in a pan as you would ground beef. Because of it's crazy spicy orange color it's difficult to tell when it's done by a color change, so take note of the texture. I doubt you can over cook it anyway. I grilled about 4 ears of corn on medium heat with olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep and eye on the corn and rotate it to evenly grill the kernels. It's okay if they get a little charred.

Making the chowder:

Dice the potatoes into small bite sized pieces, put in a large pot and cover with some broth. Put a lid on it and let them boil 'til soft. Dice the pepper and onion and cook in a lightly oiled pan 'til the onions are translucent and soft. Turn the heat off on them and wait until the potatoes are soft to add them in to the pot. Then add the rest of the broth and the corn. At this point I used my handy immersion blender to blend about half of the soup for a thicker texture. Then I added my chorizo and spices. Let them all simmer together for about 10 minutes. Minutes before you serve it, add the milk, cream and cilantro. Garnish with more fresh cilantro and crumbled queso fresco.

We ate ours with some corn chips. The chorizo is a nice flavorful addition to the creamy corn chowder. It's spicy but doesn't overtake the sweetness of the corn. It's smooth, but still has a healthy amount of chunks. I feel like this would be a nice fall dish. I think it's a little too sweaty outside to fully appreciate it's heartiness. So when corn is in season, I'll grill a bunch, remove the kernels and freeze them for later, preserving that fresh grilled taste!

*If the thought of heavy cream scares you, you could forego diary altogether, I think it would still taste nice. You could also use just milk or fat free greek yogurt, it will just yield some varying textures, experiment!