I like chowder and I like salmon. In Alaska we lived down the street from a great little restaurant called The Chowder House that had a great salmon chowder on the menu. I ate it a lot up there, but had never made my own. The other night I had some salmon I needed to cook and decided to take my favorite corn chowder recipe, change it around a bit, add the salmon and see what happened. This is the result. It turned out so well that my five year old went through 4 bowls of it and he's not even usually a big fan of salmon.

Jordana's Salmon Chowder

Any leftover salmon would do and I suppose you could use canned salmon, though I wouldn't recommend it. Starting with fresh salmon though, this is the recipe.

Salmon filet (about 3-4 inches long)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Remove skin from salmon. Brush both sides heavily with olive oil and sprinkle the top with salt and pepper. Heat a oven proof (I used cast iron) skillet on high on the stove. When the skillet is hot, put the salmon face down on the pan and cook it for 2 minutes without moving it. Then flip it over, put the skillet in the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool. Flake into small pieces to use in the soup. (The salmon is delicious and moist cooked this way, so it works great just for eating, not simply for soup-making.)

Cooking spray
1 medium onion, finely chopped
4 carrots, cut into ¼-inch rings
4 medium red potatoes, unpeeled and cut into ½-inch chunks
1 cup water
2 cups chicken broth
½ teaspoon dried dill
¾ teaspoon salt
Course ground black pepper
2 cups frozen corn, thawed or fresh corn cut from 4 ears
flaked salmon
1 cup half-and-half

Spray a large soup pot with cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Add onion and carrots and cook, stirring often, 5 minutes, or until vegetables are tender.

Add potatoes, chicken broth, dill, salt, pepper, and water. Heat to boiling; boil 10 minutes, or until potatoes are fork-tender.

When potatoes are ready, add corn and salmon to the pot and cook 5 minutes. Stir in half-and-half; heat through, but do not boil. Serve.