Adapted from Southern Living
1 small onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (4.5-ounce) can chopped green chiles, undrained
2 cups half-and-half
2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 (14 3/4-ounce) cans cream-style corn
Leftover roasted chicken
3 dashes hot sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
Saute onion, garlic, and green chiles 10 minutes. Stir in everything else except cilantro and cook over low heat, stirring often, 15 minutes. Stir in cilantro. I use a lot because we like cilantro.
I decided to go for a run at 4:30 pm (and by "decided" I mean my husband got home early from work and I immediately darted out of the house for a little quiet after a snow day at home with the kids), which meant by the time I took way too long a shower and it was after 6:00 and the kids were starving. So....they ate those frozen Kids Cuisine meals. I only have them in the house as a dinner treat when we have a babysitter. But I was desperate! And they were happy. Oh, and while the "dinners" were in the microwave, they ate 2 cookies each. Yep, that's what happened. Confession over.
So then I started in on our dinner. Chicken and Corn Chowder: the creamy, delicious soup I know is so bad for me that I save for really cold days. As I was opening the fat free half and half (the 1996 version of myself who loved those SnackWells cookies can't resist a fat free label), I noticed the second ingredient was corn syrup. Huh?! And then I looked at the label on the cream corn: sugar. I totally thought cream corn was just corn. I don't ever ever ever buy canned vegetables except for this recipe, but I thought canned vegetables were just vegetables. Wrong again. Lesson learned.