Southwestern Roasted Chicken and Corn Chowder - Make it Easy on Yourself By Using Rotisserie Chicken

Panini sandwiches are Italian in origin. I like to think of them as gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches because there's usually wonderful hot gooey cheese on them.

A panini is great on its own or as a sidekick for soup and chowder.

Here's just a few suggestions you might want to consider for your panini.

Different Breads

• Italian Bread, French Bread
• Mult-igrain Bread
• Rye
• Wheat
• Pumpernickle

Assorted mustards - honey mustard, coarse grain mustard, Dijon mustard, yellow mustars, wasabi mustard

Ham, chicken, turkey, veggies

Assorted cheeses:

• Provolone
• American
• Swiss
• Munster
• Colby Jack

Apples, Pears, Roasted Red Bell Peppers, Banana Peppers

Peanut butter

Jelly, jams

Your panini is limited only by you imagination.

There are many ways to entertain - casual, formal, social, pot luck, receptions, teas, barbeques, buffets and so on.

Social entertaining is great because guests can stand around and chat and participate in all or part of preparing of the meal. Good food, good music and good friends make a wonderful evening.

My husband, Tall & Handsome, who is also my sidekick in the kitchen and cooking adventures loves to entertain and loves social meals. Fondue is one of his favorite "social" meals to gather people around for a great time.

For Christmas Eve this year we were having a guest. T & H wanted a social meal and I wanted a meal that wasn't your typical "traditional" Christmas fare - since Christmas was the next day. I wanted just a nod toward traditional holiday food.

So after several days of thinking I developed a menu centered around panini sandwiches and Southwestern Roasted Chicken and Corn Chowder.

The combination of chowder and panini sandwiches turned out to be the perfect combination for our small get together. It was just social enough with everyone interacting by contributing to the making of their panini. I operated the panini press - a gift from my husband's sister a few years ago. It has been one of our favorite kitchen appliances. We've had fun inventing untold numbers of differnt combos for panini sandwiches.

Our Christmas Eve's menu included baked spiral cut ham, Chipotle - Cinnamon Apple Roasted Chicken, an assortment of cheeses and mustards, light mayo, sliced pears and apples, roasted red bell peppers, and banana pepper rings for the sandwiches.

I had a wide selection of sides, antipasto tray, desserts and drinks.

Our guest wasn't familiar with paninis by that name, but he said he had "smashed" sandwiches in Paris. He enjoyed his - and enjoyed another one.

I am a big fan of making cooking as easy, quick, time - saving and delicious as possible. A good way to do this when making soups, chowders and casseroles is to use rotisserie chicken. We usually pick up one or two at the store, remove the chicken from the bone, wrap it in aluminum foil and then place the packets in dated freezer zip lock bags. We freeze two packets per chicken - that's half a chicken per packet.

You can also make your own "rotisserie" chicken by roasting a whole chicken either on the grill or in the oven and then following the steps to freeze it to have on hand at a later date.

For Christmas Eve, Tall & Handsome decided to roast the chicken himself since we where having chowder and paninis. Half the bird would go into the chowder and half would be sliced for the paninis.

Tall & Handsome uses a technique called the "beer can" chicken for roasting his bird on the grill. It's kind of a misnomer because no beer can is actually involved. You can see him demonstrate the technique here.

In the future I'll do a hub and expand on the "beer can" chicken, but for now let's look at the beautiful chicken Tall & Handsome grilled for the Christmas Eve chowder and panini sandwiches.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

1 medium onion, chopped

6 cups frozen southwestern corn (Bird's Eye make a frozen southwestern corn. If you can't find a southwestern frozen corn, yellow frozen corn will be a good substitute.)

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground chili powder

5 cups low sodium chicken broth

1/4 cup all purpose flour

2 -3 medium white potatoes, peeled and cubed

1/2 rotisserie chicken

2 cups half and half (you can also use fat-free half and half)

1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves

1/2 teaspoon Jalapeno Tabasco or to taste

1 teaspoon kosher salt

ground black pepper to taste

1. Heat the olive oil and butter in a Dutch oven and stock pot over medium heat.

2. Add onions, garlic, corn, cumin and chili powder. Sautee for 10 minutes or until the onions are soft.

3. Next, add 1/4 cup all purpose flour. Cook and stir constantly for about 4 - 6 minutes making a roux and until color begins to turn golden.

4. Whisk or stir in chicken broth. Then, add the potatoes and the chicken.

5. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer 15 to 20 minutes until potatoes are tender.

6. Once potatoes start to become tender, stir in half and half, salt, pepper and Jalapeno Tabasco sauce. Simmer another 10 minutes.

7. Stir in cilantro. Adjust seasoning if needed.

Can be served with warm buttered tortillas and sliced avocados drizzled with lime juice and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Enjoy!!

Corn and Potato Chowder

Easy to Make Rainy Day Chicken Noodle Soup

No matter what you're planning for your end of the year celebration or for the beginning of the new year, there are so many choices.

You can set up an occasion for just you and your special someone or a social meal for a party that leaves everyone full of tasty food and make everyone toasty, comfortable and happy starting the new year.

Remember you imagination is the only limitation.