Avocado Chicken Corn Chowder

You know when you see people ask questions like, “what is the one food you could never give up” or ” If you could only eat one food the rest of your life, what would it be?”. First off I hate those questions because I have like a ten way tie for my favorite food, avocado being one of them. I definitely couldn’t ever give them up. Second I also couldn’t ever give up coconut, lobster, pineapple, bacon, wine, cake, seafood of any kind, coffee flavored desserts; ok so you get the idea. I really do try to avoid those questions. I guess I could say I wouldn’t give up soup since its a multi- ingredient meal and I can get away with putting more that one of my fave foods in it.

I actually have a love-hate relationship with avocados. I love to eat them. I hate bringing them home from the store only to find out they are bad. There is this cool trick to finding out if they are ripe which I love, but since everyone seems to know that trick now every avocado at the store is missing its stem and its turned brown where the stem was. I hate that.

I love cutting into an avocado and its perfect. No blemishes, no brown spots. Just buttery and perfect. I hate that my whole family loves avocado and I have to share with them. Just kidding. I love that they all love them, especially in guacamole form. When my younger girl was about a year and a half old, we were out at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and they waiter brought guacamole and chips and she squealed with delight, ” ohhhh dip-dip-dip!! yummy!!”  She would dip a chip and say, ” dip-dip-dip” each time. Hilarious. And she wasn’t afraid of spicy either. I watched her eat hot salsa with a spoon and not even bat an eye. Crazy kid.

My kids love to help make guacamole when we make it at home. that crazy younger kid of mine will take a bit out of each avocado if we aren’t watching her close enough. Actually, I could stare at her and she would still do it. Both kids love to smash the avocados, help add in the spices etc. Really I think they only help just knowing that they will be eating chips with it. They love chips. Ok so do I too.

We had avocado trees at our house growing up in Southern California. I loved that. I remember being a kid and helping my dad make guacamole and my mom getting mad at us for eating most of it with a giant pile of chips before dinner. Because, you know, we were going to spoil our appetites. Whatever, chips and guac are a perfectly acceptable dinner.

I tried growing one here last year, but we get these wicked wind storms and it knocked it over before it even had a chance. It was still in a pot but it was doing really well. I may try again this year and buy another one. So until then I will keep buying them, and flicking the stems off of them to check for ripeness. We have been lucky with getting consistently ripe avocados from Costco. My husband bought a couple bags the other day and I noticed that the labels had recipes one them. One was for a really simple avocado soup.

It was getting to be about time to make dinner and since I am SUCH a good meal planner…. (NOT) I decided to try the soup , but add to it and make it a bit spicier and flavorful. I am a HUGE soup fan and I love hearty soups, chilis and chowders so I knew I waned to make this into a full meal, but just a simple soup. One thing we always have on hand is grilled chicken; its a house staple. So I knew I wanted to shred some and add it in. And my secret weapon for creamy soup – coconut milk. I LOVE it in soups. So this is one reason I could pick soup as the one food I would never give up because it has two of my favorite foods in it. I guess I could add lobster instead of chicken and then it would be even more amazing!!

Now I want lobster.

Avocado Chicken Corn Chowder

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Preparation 30 mins Cook Time 20 mins Serves 8-10     adjust servings

Avocado Chicken Corn Chowder Serves 8-10 Recipe based on a recipe from a Costco Avocado Bag label.

Ingredients

• 1/2 medium white onion, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, unpeeled
• 1 serrano pepper (or Jalapeno)
• 4 large avocados, cut in half, seeds removed and peeled
• Juice and zest of 2 medium limes
• 1 1/2 c (13.5 ounce can) coconut milk
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp sea salt, or to taste
• 1 tsp ground black pepper, or to taste
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 1 1/2 c organic sweet corn (canned or frozen and thawed – fresh if in season)
• 2 grilled chicken breasts, shredded ( about 3 cups)

For Garnish

• 4-5 corn tortillas
• Coconut oil
• Cotija Cheese, crumbled
• Cilantro, chopped

Instructions

1. Heat a cast iron skilled or sauté pan over medium-high heat and place the whole garlic cloves on the pan and heat until starting to brown and soften. Turn the garlic once in a while to get all sides. When they are starting to get soft add the whole Serrano or jalapeno to the pan and blister the skin on all sides. Remove garlic and pepper from pan and let cool enough to handle.
2. Heat the Tbsp coconut oil a large Dutch oven over medium heat and the diced onion. Cook until starting to caramelize, about 7-8 minutes. Remove from the pot and place in a blender.
3. Peel the garlic and place in the blender. Peel the pepper and remove stem and seeds. Place in the blender along with the peeled avocados, lime zest and juice, coconut milk, cumin and 2 cups of the chicken broth. Blend until very smooth.
4. Pour the avocado puree into the Dutch oven and heat over medium, add the remaining 2 cups of chicken broth, taste and season with the salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer. Add in the corn and the shredded chicken and stir well. Turn heat to low and cover.
5. Heat oven to 300 deg. Chop the corn tortillas into thin strips. Place on a baking sheet and sprinkle over coconut oil to lighty coat. Bake until crispy, stirring often. About 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and place the strips on a paper towel
6. When ready to serve, ladle the chowder into bowls and garnish with crumbled cotija cheese, cilantro and the tortilla strips. Serve hot.

by Shanna

Recipe Notes

To make this "Paleo" omit the corn and tortillas.
You can use either light or full fat coconut milk. I prefer full fat.
If you want more heat add another jalapeno or serrano and leave the seeds in
This soup is great served hot or cold

So if you have a pile of avocados and want to try something different from guacamole one night, try this soup. We loved it. My kids loved that there were chips in it. Which they picked out and ate them all first. Typical.