Leftover Corned Beef and Cabbage Chowder

Okay, so the St. Patrick's Day "Irish" meal has been eaten. If your family is like mine, there will be plenty of leftovers. If you read my post yesterday (Crock Pot Corned Beef and Cabbage), you know that my kids don't eat the corned beef. Yet I make it every year. So every year, I undoubtedly, have tons of leftovers. In years past, I've made hash, or just reheated, but this year, I really wanted to transform it into something else. Who says I can't make Leftover Corned Beef and Cabbage Chowder?

Here's the thing, I'm not 100% sure, what defines a chowder. I should have looked into this, before I named it, but, quite honestly, I got lazy. I'm going to go with this: A soup that has a base of meat or seafood and a milk or cream broth. I don't know if this is right, but this is what I'm sticking with. If you have the actual definition I would love to hear it, unless I'm wrong, then you can keep it to yourself!

I made this "chowder" on the stovetop, because it comes together fairly quickly, but if you aren't going to be home, I think you could throw it all in the crockpot and just add the milk when you get home, I wouldn't want that milk cooking all day, so maybe just the last hour of cooking. My best guess, for crock pot, for total time would be 3-4 hours on low. I mean, everything is already cooked, so it's just a matter of warming and letting the flavors meld.

If you didn't save any cooking liquid from your original corned beef and cabbage, (shame on you, because I specifically told you to save it yesterday) just use chicken broth.

One last note, or confession if you will, after it was done, I wasn't sure if it was going to be good and I was a little scared to eat it. Don't worry, after one spoonful, I was sold. It was awesome. Thank goodness, I now have a recipe to use up all my leftovers.

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