Smoked Citrus, Cumin & Garlic Turkey Breast

Here's a heads up for ya, folks. Think of this as one of those big yellow "Work Zone Ahead" signs on the turnpike. Only this one would say "BBQ Overload Ahead." Yep, that's what happens when you get a new smoker. Well, that and BIG silly sauce stained smiles on the faces of neighbors and family from all that smoky deliciousness!

One of the BEST things about smoking is how easy it is...I think of it almost as the crockpot of summer cooking. Really. Seriously!  A little simple prep, throw it in the smoker with soaked wood chips of choice, check the internal temp of the protein on occasion and pull it out when it registers what you're looking for. Boom! If you put some fresh ears of corn in there at the same time, maybe even some par-boiled potatoes, mushrooms and/or tomatoes, you have an entire meal at once. 

Although the ease is one reason for my smoking enthusiasm, the crazy BBQ flavor is the deal sealer for me. Don't have a smoker? You can use a smoker box in your gas or charcoal grill. Don't want to invest in an expensive smoker? Do what we did around here. For $40 we initially bought an electric column type smoker at Home Depot that we used for years! After that, the same type - only a charcoal model from Lowe's - was our baby for another few years. That one was a whopping $50! Bottom line here is that you can get in on the ground floor of smoking for almost peanuts.

Okay, enough talking about smoking. Let's get goin' and get on the road to the recipe!

Smoked Citrus Cumin Garlic Turkey Breast

• a 2-3 lb boneless, skinless fresh turkey breast
• a quart bowl of smoker wood chips, soaked in water for at least an hour before putting the turkey in the smoker - I used a combo of apple and hickory chips

Citrus, Cumin & Garlic Butter:

• zest of 1 lime, 1 Meyer (or regular) lemon, 1/2 an orange (zest the orange BEFORE cutting in half)
• 1 t cumin
• 1 large garlic clove, pressed or minced finely
• 1 small shallot, finely minced
• 3 T soft butter
• 1/2 T kosher salt
• freshly ground black pepper

Baste:

• juice of 1/2 the lime, 1/2 the Meyer lemon and the WHOLE orange
• 1 t cumin
• 1 t oregano
• 1 1/2 t kosher salt
• 1 T honey
• 2 T olive oil

A few hours before you start smoking (or the day before), butterfly the turkey breast. 

Laying the breast longitudinally in front of you on a cutting board, make a shallow cut down the center being sure not to cut through to the bottom. Next place your knife inside that cut and cut horizontally towards the left of the breast being careful not to cut all the way through. Do the same on the right side and open the breast up, laying it flat. 

Spread or pat the prepared butter in the center, leaving plenty of butter-less space around the edges. You want to keep the butter inside the breast as it cooks. Roll the buttered turkey breast from one side to the other and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate the turkey breast 1-2 hours (or even overnight) and take out an hour before you want to put it in the smoker.

Turkey breast butterflied open and spread with Citrus Cumin Garlic Butter

Prepare your smoker and bring it up to 225 degrees. Once it's at temp, place the turkey breast in the smoker, inserting a cooking thermometer into the center of the breast (my smoker came with a probe built in - convenient!). Smoke to an internal temp of 165 degrees basting occasionally with the basting liquid throughout the smoking time. When the probe registers 165, remove and let rest for at least 15 minutes before slicing thinly. And enjoy!

NOTE: Once you start smoking, you may never have to buy expensive lunch meats again. Leftovers make fantastic sandwiches and salads! In fact, my next post will feature a recipe for leftover smoked brisket...stay tuned.

Saged Potato Dumpling Turkey Vegetable Soup

Today's recipe didn't start out to be a "Quickie," but the potato dumplings were such a snap to put together it ended up as just that.

The actual soup, on the other hand, can be as quick or slow as you wish it to be. This time, I made my turkey stock from scratch, the slow way. Next time I may just use good turkey or chicken stock from a carton and make it a true quickie.

All I added to the stock were fresh green beans, small cuts of carrot, slivers of celery, cubes of red and white potatoes (with the skins on for color and the vitamins and minerals!) and lots of leftover turkey meat. 

The soup itself was put together and cooked the day before I planned to serve it. We all know soups and stews are better the next day, right? By the way, that's what makes this a quickie...you make the soup the day before and make the dumplings only the day you serve it!

Back to those potato dumplings...the first time saving step is that you use leftover mashed potatoes. Who doesn't have leftover mashed potatoes after Thanksgiving or Christmas?! When it was almost dinnertime the next day, I got going on the dumplings. 

To build savory stuffing flavor right into the dumplings, I sauteed celery and onion in butter until soft, added dried sage, poultry seasoning, flour, an egg and a little salt and pepper and the dumpling batter was ready to drop gently into simmering soup. Once they all floated prettily to the top, it was done.

And there you have it, a deliciously easy way to use up the last bits of Thanksgiving (or Christmas!) in this simple, satisfying and thrifty post-holiday quickie. Enjoy!

Saged Potato Dumpling Turkey Vegetable Soup

Soup (make this the day before the dumplings):

• 4 quarts turkey stock, either homemade or a good packaged one - I like poultry seasoning added to the stock, but that's up to you
• 3 C fresh green beans cut into 1" pieces (or use frozen!)
• 4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cut into cubes - leave the skins on for vitamins and minerals (I used both red and white potatoes for color and to use up what I had on hand)
• 3 stalks celery, cut into thin slivers
• 3 medium carrots, peeled, cut into coins
• 1 small onion, diced
• 4 C leftover turkey pieces - for us, it's usually dark meat and errant pieces of white meat that didn't make it into sandwiches...good way to use up the whole bird when your gang prefers the white meat!

Bring the stock to a boil in a large soup pot, add all the veggies and the turkey, then reduce the heat to bring the stock down to a simmer. Cover and let the soup simmer for an hour or so, cool and refrigerate overnight IN the soup pot.

Dumplings (before dinner the next day):

• 1/2 T butter
• 2 T onion, minced
• 2 T celery, minced
• 1 1/2 t poultry seasoning
• 1/2 t ground sage
• 1/2 t salt
• generous amount of freshly ground black pepper
• 1 3/4 C leftover mashed potatoes, brought to room temperature
• 2/3 C flour - I used Namaste gluten-free all purpose flour to make these GF
• 1 egg

Before you start making dumplings, put the pot of soup you made yesterday on the stove and bring to a simmer.

In a small skillet, melt butter and gently saute the onion and celery until tender, but not browned. Add poultry seasoning, sage, salt & pepper. Saute a minute more while stirring to awaken the aromas...it will smell like stuffing in your kitchen all over again! (That's a good thing around here!) Remove from the heat and let cool while putting the dumplings together.

In a large bowl, mix together the room temp mashed potatoes, flour, salt and pepper and the egg until thoroughly combined. Add the cooled veggies and mix again until thoroughly combined. Now you're ready to drop the dumplings into the waiting, simmering soup.

Using a spoon, take a small amount of dough (maybe a tablespoon each), roll each spoonful into a ball, then drop each into the gently simmering soup. Continue until all the dough is gone or make just as many or few as you want for the soup. (If you don't use all the dough, you can refrigerate it and use it for pan-fried dumplings the next day as a side dish.)

Once all the dumplings have risen to the surface of the soup, give them one more minute and then the soup and dumplings are ready to serve.

NOTE: You can easily make this with a leftover roast chicken!

Adaptable Turkey - Or Chicken - Pot Pie Soup

"Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-changes." "You can't change the direction of the wind, but you can adjust your sails." The end of 2013 brought changes. Whether or not they were positive or negative depends on your half full/half empty outlook on life. As always, I chose half full. I can't say every day maintained such optimism. You see, Mark is awaiting a heart transplant.

The fact that he's here and we're waiting is a great BIG positive! We've had our ups, we've had our downs. We've learned not to take anything for granted when all you hold dear seems so transient. And so we learn to bend with the breeze and enjoy whatever fleeting moments of sunshine we encounter.

What does this all have to do with cooking, eating and recipes? Adjusting sails and bending are a major part of cooking, you know. Not literally of course, because I do as little bending as possible when cooking! (Okay...any other time, too.) Substitutions and adjustments in recipes are a day-to-day occurrence. With all that's been going on around the Dinner Plan-it house, planned meals were few and far between, we learned to catch as catch can when it came to cooking. Experience in flexibility certainly has come in handy recently!

Home...and Thanksgiving dinner...is where the heart is.

 

We believed from the beginning of this journey that Mark would be home for Thanksgiving and that holiday came and went. Thanksgiving dinner? We packed it up and took it to the hospital, put out a nice tablecloth on top of a few bedside tables strung end-to-end and had a lovely traditional family dinner together complete with turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and lots of laughs and love. We shared our meal with nurses, doctors and staff - whomever was working the holiday and was hungry (and didn't think hospital cafeteria food cut it on Thanksgiving!). It was good. (Christmas dinner with Mark is waiting until he can actually enjoy it...we're adaptable. Christmas dinner doesn't have to be on December 25th!) 

 

One of the things I always do with turkey leftovers is to make a gigunda pot of soup...that was the plan this year, too. Plans change. I at least made the stock and had the foresight to freeze it! A couple of weeks went by and time to make soup opened up...but there was no leftover turkey in the house. Sail adjustment! I bought a rotisserie chicken and used the meat from that...and had a convenient take-home dinner while I was at it.  

Thus our Turkey Pot Pie Soup was adaptable...turkey stock, chicken meat. No biggie...these are the small things in life. Our soup was just as good as what was planned from the start, just a little different than our first thoughts. And so is life. Plans are just that...blueprints. Blueprints and plans change, adapt to new thoughts, ideas and needs. And we make them work!

Here's to a New Year of beautiful plans and even more wonderful realities. I can hardly wait for new changes and adventures...sweet new moments of joy. May there be many of them. Welcome 2014!

Turkey - Or Chicken - Pot Pie Soup 

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2 shallots, large ones, peeled, fine dice
• 3 stalks celery, ends cut off, cut across into 1" pieces
• 3 large carrots, peeled, cut across into 1/2" pieces - I used 2 bright orange and 1 pretty yellow one
• 1 1/2 pounds red potatoes, small ones, cut in half
• 1/4 pound green beans, fresh, cut into 1 1/2" pieces - I like the small ones the French call haricots verte...mmmmm
• 1 zucchini, about an 8" one, ends cut off, cut in half lengthwise, then cut across into 1/2" slices
• 2 cups turkey, leftover, in big pieces
• 1/4 cup flour, I used Jules gluten-free all-purpose flour to make this GF
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 2 tablespoons chicken bouillon granules, I use Better Than Boullion brand chicken base - SO much better than boullion...the name doesn't lie!
• 1 gallon chicken stock, homemade or bought - use a GOOD low salt version if you buy it

• 1 cup frozen peas

• 1 pie crust  (9 inch), Roll it out onto a Silpat, bake as directed, remove from oven and cool. Break or cut into 8 pieces to top each bowl of soup with. OR bake your own favorite crust and bake on a Silpat. I made a GF crust using the classic Crisco recipe using GF flour.

In a large stockpot, melt the butter and add all the veggies. Stir and cook until they start to get tender. Add the turkey (or chicken!) and stir. Sprinkle the flour (GF to make this GF!) and poultry seasoning over the top and stir into the veggie/turkey mixture well. 

Add stock slowly, stirring until well incorporated; add the chicken base, stir well again. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, stir up from the bottom making sure the bottom isn't sticking, then cover and let cook until the veggies are completely tender. Remove from heat.
 
While the soup is cooking, make the crust. I use the classic Crisco recipe using Jules GF flour. Here's the recipe, use regular flour if you don't have the gluten issue to deal with!
  
(SINGLE CRUST

• 1 1/3 cups gluten-free flour blend OR regular flour if gluten isn't an issue
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 stick well-chilled Crisco
• 1/4 cup well-chilled unsalted butter
• 3 to 6 tablespoons ice cold water

Pulse flour and salt in the bowl of your food processor.

Add Crisco and butter to processor bowl and pulse until there are pea-sized pieces in the bowl.

Sprinkle half the water into the bowl and pulse. If it starts to come together into a ball, sprinkle another tablespoon over the top and continue until the ball forms - DON'T over process! If you still need more water, add just enough until the ball forms.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove dough from the fridge, center it onto a Silpat or parchment paper covered baking sheet and roll it out thinly into a circle - use flour (GF if you're making a gluten-free crust) on the rolling pin to help keep the dough from sticking. Prick the dough all over with a fork and bake 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned. (The gluten-free crust may not brown well, so you may want to make an egg wash and brush it on the crust ti help brown it.) Remove from oven, let cool and break or cut into large pieces to garnish the soup and make it pot pie-ish!)
 
Just before serving, stir the frozen peas into the soup just to warm them through. That way you have fresh tasting, bright green peas that pop instead of being mushy.

To serve, ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with pieces of pie crust and serve!


Happy New Year to one and all! May 2014 be our BEST year ever!!!!!!

Turkey-With-All-The-Trimmings Thanksgiving Meatloaf

Here it is for all of you who don't want to deal with the fuss and drudgery of making a great big, slippery, intimidating turkey, but still want to make a somewhat traditional holiday dinner. Traditional turkey,  tart cranberries, rich sweet potatoes and our favorite stuffing go-togethers...apples, sage sausage (turkey sausage to keep with the theme), celery, onion and lots of poultry seasoning truly makes this meatloaf a Turkey Day - or ANY day - treat!

Kimber and I started talking about making a turkey Thanksgiving meatloaf just a few days ago...today we mixed and tested, mixed some more...and tested some more, finally coming up with what we both think is the perfect combination of salty, sweet, tart and savory. Really, I don't want to over-hype it, but this is one of the best meatloaves I have ever posted to Dinner Plan-it. 

If you're looking for the tastes of a time-honored Thanksgiving dinner without spending hours and hours roasting, basting and carving, this might be just the thing. Add a nice bowl of fluffy mashed potatoes, a good green veggie or two, buy a pumpkin pie and a can of whipping cream and you've got a simple, delicious and relatively easy Thanksgiving dinner!

Now, gather those you love most, friends and family who mean the world to you...sit, talk, eat, laugh, treasure every moment. Enjoy the day without the big fuss and focus on what is most important...each other. Happy Thanksgiving and many blessings from us to every single one of you!

Turkey-With-With-All-The-Trimmings 

Thanksgiving Meatloaf

• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 2 stalks celery, WITH lots of leaves, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 6 ounces turkey breakfast sausage, got mine at Whole Foods...LOVE this stuff!

• 3 pounds ground turkey (white meat)
• 2 large eggs
• 1 medium sweet potato, peeled and shredded (about 1 cup)
• 1 apple, peeled, cored, small dice - I used a Granny Smith
• 1 cup fresh cranberries, chopped coarsely
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, or more if you wish...I like MORE
• 5 tablespoons poultry seasoning
• 3 slices white bread, crumbled coarsely - a good firm white bread like Pepperidge Farm - to make this gluten free, I used Whole Foods Light White bread that has a similar texture and firmness to Pepperidge Farm - LOVE this GF bread!

In a skillet, melt the butter and add celery and onion. Saute until they start to soften. Add the sausage, crumbling well as it cooks. When it is cooked through, add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning, mixing well. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
 
In a BIG bowl, mix the ground turkey, eggs, cranberries, sweet potatoes, apple, salt, pepper and crumbled bread. Add the cooled (not cold) onion/celery mixture and mix thoroughly with your hands until the meatloaf mixture is evenly mixed.
 
If you wish, mound mixture into individual large foil muffin cups. If you do this, bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes. I made 6 muffin cups and made 2 loaves out of the remaining mixture. I baked the meatloaves for 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees.
 
Let sit for about 5 minutes after removing from oven before slicing the meatloaves.
 
Just like a complete Thanksgiving dinner in a meatloaf - turkey, stuffing, cranberries and sweet potatoes...YUM!

Bacon Roasted Jalapeno Garlic & Lime Turkey Breast

We'd had all the best intentions in the world of celebrating Labor Day by relaxing on the back deck, chatting with neighbors, tending the turkey as it roasted away on the grill for a few hours.  The weather guy, however, said that wasn't such a good idea...it was going to RAIN!  And it was going to rain buckets...beware you unwary, foolish people who plan an outdoor celebration, the remnants of Isaac are headed this way!  We were just POSITIVE he was right....once in a while, he HAS to be right, right?

Wrong.  Cautiously, we chickened out of the al fresco idea...tucked tail and roasted the turkey indoors.  But you know what?  Damn it was good just done in the oven indoors...the bacon wrap gave moistness and great OUTSIDE smokey flavor to our INSIDE bird!  When we thought about it afterwards, we could never have roasted the turkey on the grill with all that bacon anyway - it may have burned up from bacon grease flare ups before it ever roasted properly...even over an indirect heat.  Maybe the indoor prep was meant to be after all. 

The jalapeno, garlic and lime butter?  It infused the turkey breast with deep heat and garlicky goodness through and through.  We still had the outdoor BBQ grill flavor!  Good to know for cool and rainy or cold and snowy days to come, yes?  Yes!  

And that weather guy?  He's predicting rain for the next 4 days....yeah, right.

Bacon Roasted Jalapeno Garlic & Lime Turkey Breast

• 2 jalapenos, stem end removed, leave in seeds & ribs for more heat, cut into chunks
• 1/2 small onion, chunked
• 4 large garlic cloves, peeled and stem end cut off
• 2 limes, zest only (save the juice for cocktails!)
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• fresh ground black pepper, lots!

• 1 turkey breast, with ribs and skin
• 1/2 pound bacon

Prepare jalapeno butter:  In a food processor, whirl onion & jalapeno.  While the processor is running, drop the garlic cloves down the chute & continue processing until everything is minced.  Transfer to a small bowl & add the salt, pepper, zest & butter.  Work the butter into the rest until everything is incorporated into an even mixture.
 

Run your hand gently between the flesh and the skin of the turkey breast, creating a nice pocket on each side, but don't break the connective tissue that runs down the center from neck to butt end - leaving that in place helps keep the butter in place.  

Put half the butter mixture into each side.  From the OUTSIDE, using your hands, rub and distribute the butter mixture all over the turkey breast on both sides.  (It's easier to do this from the outside!)  Do this the morning you're going to roast the turkey breast or even the night before!  Refrigerate.
 

Put a roast rack (I like the V-shape type) into a roasting pan, settle the turkey breast into the rack skin side up.  Pepper the outside of the turkey breast well and cover the skin with bacon slices.

Overlap bacon slices across the outside and secure with a couple of toothpicks, if necessary.

Preheat oven to 400 and roast until the turkey skin is browned and golden under the bacon and the turkey registers 165 degrees.  Remove from the oven & let rest for 15-20 minutes before slicing.

Golden and delicious turkey INDOORS!

Mango Tango Turkey Burgers

 

Piles of gorgeous, ripe Champagne mangoes (those small golden ones shaped like cashews) beckoned from the fruit stalls at West Side Market the other weekend, so Kimber and I did what any sane (?) shopper would do...we bought a full case!  At the bargain price of 75 cents each, how could we resist?!   

A mango tequila infusion was my plan and Kimber's idea was a curried sliced chicken and mango salad …we knew we’d figure out what to do with the rest.  And we did. 

So far, the intended tequila infusion (very nice so far with about a week to go before it’s fully ready) has come to fruition (pun!), a mango and corn salsa went to work with me (the gang was happy with that!), and, of course, the burgers.  That’s my favorite of all...so far anyway.   

How can you not like a burger with all the good stuff of mango salsa crammed INTO it?  Mark really liked this one – and let me repeat, it’s a TURKEY burger! There's so much going on flavor-wise - sweet mango, spicy siracha, smoky cumin, bright cilantro, peppers, onion....fantastic!  With all those gorgeous colors, the burger has the look of party confetti!

The mango madness isn’t over yet in the kitchen, folks.  Chicken salad with cashews, celery, Thai green curry, a little mayo, lime and mango is the dinner plan tonight.  And that last mango?  I’m craving the corn and mango salsa again…and there’s leftover corn from tonight’s dinner.  Another plan!

One more thing before the burger recipe, did you know that mangoes, cashews and pistachios are botanically related?  People with tree nut allergies need to be careful not to eat mangoes to avoid the same allergic reaction.  Don't make these burgers for anyone with a nut allergy!  Okay, that was my public service announcement of the day.  Now on to the recipe!

Mango Tango Turkey Burgers

• 1 pound ground turkey
• 2 tablespoons red bell pepper, diced fine
• 2 tablespoons green bell pepper, diced fine
• 2 tablespoons purple onion, diced fine
• 1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon siracha
• 1/2 teaspoon granulated garlic
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1/2 mango, chopped fine, use a Champagne mango - those small yellow ones that are cashew shaped

Before grilling...look at the mango!

Mix all together lightly and make into 4 patties.

Grill in a grill basket...they're soft so this way there won't be any accidental bits falling through the grates.  You can pan fry them, too.  (The "before" picture doesn't look like the patties are in a basket, but they are.  I took the pic before closing it up.)
 

Serve with or without buns.  It's nice to grill some of that onion in slabs and grill some mango, too...delicious on top of the burger!  Avocado would be a good addition, too.

Spinach, Black Bean and Turkey Enchiladas

This recipe was first given to my mom and I by my sister Julie - this quick and easy meal is one of Julie's all-time favorites. And, it is delicious and healthy, too! The only change I've made over the years is to add meat to it - which makes it perfect if you have left over chicken…or turkey from Thanksgiving. Since the recipe was originally vegetarian, if you want to leave out the chicken, go right ahead! 

• 1 package frozen spinach, cut kind, 10 oz. package, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 tablespoon taco seasoning mix - I use HOT, of course
• 1 can black beans, drained
• 12 oz cooked diced or shredded turkey or chicken
• 10 rice tortillas (or tortillas of your choice) (soften tortillas by placing a damp paper towel on a plate, then the tortillas, another damp paper towel and microwave for 20 seconds or until warmed and softened - keep covered until ready to use)
• 4 ounces feta cheese (or more, what the heck!)
• 1 can RoTel
• 1/2 cup salsa, thick, saucy kind like Pace - HOT, if you dare!
• 2 ounces shredded cheddar cheese

Mix spinach, beans, turkey (or chicken), feta & taco seasoning. Dip a tortilla into salsa and fill with mixture. Roll and place into 9x13 pan that has been sprayed with Pam and has a little salsa spread on the bottom. Fill and roll rest of tortillas. If they crack, don't worry - it will be just fine. If you have any leftover filling, just scatter it over the top of the casserole before the next step.

Mix remaining salsa and a can of RoTeltomatoes together and spread over enchiladas and then sprinkle with cheddar.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes.
To serve, either lift enchiladas with two forks onto a plate or simply cut the casserole dish into squares like you would lasagna...which is how mom does it.

NOTE: We used to make these with flour tortillas until my mom had to go Gluten Free. Two years ago I made this dish for Mothers day and used gluten-free rice tortillas, I will use these from now on. The crunch and taste was just perfect! Mom sometimes uses soft corn tortillas, too.

White Chili

You just knew I'd be posting a recipe for leftover turkey, didn't you?!  And, I am.  But this is one that won't make you feel like it's the same old, same old turkey, gravy and stuffing all over again.  Nope, the flavors of spicy chiles and smoky cumin, sweet onion and garlic turn leftover turkey into a whole new dish your family will want again and again....not just after Thanksgiving!

Truth be told, I've always used chicken for this dish - if you want to use chicken, go ahead!  I had LOTS of leftover turkey dark meat, so that's what inspired me to run with this variation....and it is fantastic!  Use white meat or dark meat, whatever you have the most of or whatever you like best.  

Where the recipe calls for ancho chile powder?  Go ahead and use regular chile powder or HOT chile powder or a combination of whatever kinds of chile powder you like best...chipotle?  That would be awesome!  If you like more or less cumin - go for it!  Obviously, this is a very forgiving recipe....and one my family clamors for often.  Bet your family will too.

White Chili - with turkey!

• 3 C. onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T. olive oil
• 2 jalapeno peppers, seeded, minced (I used 4 - we like it HOT!)
• 2 4-oz. cans chopped green chiles
• 2 T. cumin, or more to taste
• 1 t. oregano
• 1 t. ancho chile powder - or your favorite kind
• 1 t. salt
• 2 C. chicken stock, canned or homemade
• 40 oz. cannelini beans, drained
• 4 C. cooked chicken or turkey, shredded
• 1 can DelMonte Summer Crisp corn, or whatever kind you like

In a soup pot over medium high heat, saute onions and garlic in the olive oil until onion is soft.

Add jalapenos, green chiles, cumin, oregano, ancho chile powder and salt.  Cook 1 minute.

Stir in chicken broth, beans and chicken or turkey.  Bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes or until slightly thickened.

Stir in corn and continue heating another 15 minutes.

To serve, ladle into bowls and top with a dollop of sour cream and shredded cheddar.