Creamy Seafood Chowder
For the best chowder recipe, you will love our Creamy Seafood Chowder. It’s made with shrimp, clams, and crab meat, and optional bacon. For the holidays, enjoy a bowl of delicious, easy “chowdah” bursting with so much flavor! Everyone always asks for our recipe!
I am so in love with clam chowder, especially this time of year. What is better than a comfort bowl of Creamy Seafood Chowder, served with a festive salad and hot sour dough bread? Truly, it’s the ultimate holiday menu. [Read my tips below how to get “crunchy” bread.]
Creamy Seafood Chowder
Made with your favorite seafood, we add bay shrimp, crab meat and clams! The bacon is optional–but our guests tend to love it.
Perfect for any soup night, this recipe is particularly “special” on the weekend. Like a Friday night … :) It’s a soulful meal, and everyone just seems to love a good bowl of “chowdah.”
Our Best Clam Chowder video has over 22 million views on Facebook! That’s right, it’s that good, and gets a lot of controversy with the bacon. HA. But this recipe has more than clams! [PS. Do you follow me on Facebook?]
Why I love this recipe
- The flavors are perfect – savory and full of seafood wonder!
- Such an easy recipe with simple ingredients. You can buy most of the seafood at Costco.
- We love this recipe for Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Gather these ingredients
- Bacon
- Butter
- Celery + leeks + onion + garlic
- Potatoes
- Broth
- Clam juice + clams
- Salt + pepper + dried thyme
- Flour
- Half-and-half
- Salad shrimp (bay shrimp)
- Crabmeat
- Bay leaf
- Old Bay seasoning
- Chopped fresh chives or green onions, for garnish
How do to make Creamy Seafood Chowder
- In a Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain; set aside. Add butter to the drippings (you can spoon out some of the drippings if you don’t want to use that much); saute celery, leek, and onion until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the potatoes, broth, clam juice, salt, pepper and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- In a small bowl, combine flour and 1 cup half-and-half until smooth. Gradually stir into the soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened.
- Stir in (drained) clams, shrimp, crabmeat, and remaining 3 cups of half-and-half; heat through (do not boil); turn down to low heat; add the bay leaf. Cook for additional 2-3 minutes on low heat. Add in 4 strips of crumbled bacon, and season to taste with Old Bay seasoning.
- Crumble the reserved 2 strips of bacon. Garnish chowder with crumbled bacon and fresh chopped chives.
Tips and substitutions:
TIP FOR BREAD: I love to keep my favorite bread in the freezer. When company comes, or I need a loaf for last-minute, I put a loaf in the microwave to defrost for a couple of minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees: Bake thawed bread for 10 minutes. If the bread is still frozen, bake for about 15-20 minutes. This is how you get hot, crunchy bread!
- Always add the clam juice.
- Optional to add bacon, but it’s SO good. It’s great for garnish!
- Add chicken bouillon powder for more taste, if you want.
- You can add fewer potatoes, and cut them really small.
- Leeks are optional, but they make the soup SO good.
Serving
Serve a pot of this creamy soup with this apple and blue cheese chopped salad (the dressing is so good), and this potato bread. Delish!
More chowder recipes to try while you are here.
Get the Recipe:
Creamy Seafood Chowder
Ingredients
- 8-10 bacon strips, divided
- 2 Tbsp. butter
- 2 celery ribs, chopped
- 1 leek, finely chopped
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
- 3-4 small potatoes, red potatoes or Yukon gold, peeled and cubed
- 2 cups broth, chicken or vegetable
- 2 8 ounce bottles clam juice
- 1 tsp white pepper
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- ⅔ cup all-purpose flour
- 4 cups half-and-half, divided
- 3 6 ½ oz cans whole clams, chopped into chunky pieces, no need to drain
- 6 oz salad shrimp, bay shrimp
- 6 oz crabmeat, shredded
- Bay leaf
- 1-2 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning
- Chopped fresh chives or green onions, for garnish
Equipment
- Dutch Oven (I like this one from Lodge)
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp. Remove to paper towels to drain; set aside. Add butter to the drippings (you can spoon out some of the drippings if you don’t want to use that much); saute celery, leek, and onion until tender. Add garlic; cook 1 minute longer. Stir in the potatoes, broth, clam juice, salt, pepper and thyme. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 15-20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.
- In a small bowl, combine flour and 1 cup half-and-half until smooth. Gradually stir into the soup. Bring to a boil; cook and stir for 1-2 minutes or until thickened.
- Stir in (drained) clams, shrimp, crabmeat, and remaining 3 cups of half-and-half; heat through (do not boil); turn down to low heat; add the bay leaf. Cook for additional 2-3 minutes on low heat. Add in 4 strips of crumbled bacon, and season to taste with Old Bay seasoning.
- Crumble the reserved 2 strips of bacon. Garnish chowder with crumbled bacon and fresh chopped chives.
Notes
Hello and welcome to my home and table!
I’m Sandy—lover of food, family, cooking, THE BIG BOARD, travel, and bringing people together. Through great recipes and connection around the table, we become better, stronger, and more courageous people. Feasting on Life is real, and every time we do it, we grow a little more. Read more...
We just finished eating this and it was soooooo good!!. I added lobster meat and didn’t have half and half but used heavy cream. It was very thick, lol. I will definitely make again. Thanks so much.
Hi Annette, yes heavy cream would make it much thicker than half and half! For sure! I’m glad you enjoyed it. Sounds delish with lobster!
My non-seafood eater, aka my son-in-law, loved this chowder. I’m from Massachusetts and loved the “chowdah” comment!
I made this chowder with a few variations, based on what we had in the house at the time. No bacon, celery, or clam juice. Only used chicken broth. Added some celery salt. Only used crab and shrimp, because I didn’t want to overwhelm my son-in-law, lol. Even with these variations, it came out delicious. Oh, I almost forgot. I also added a bit of sharp cheddar cheese.
Thanks for this recipe!
What is salad shrimp and is the crab meat and shrimp,in cans? I
You can add whatever kind of fish that you want. Of course we buy it fresh, because the chowder is better with fresh.
I have now made this seafood chowder at least four times, it even made our Christmas menu list for the last couple years. All of our adult kids, and almost all the grands, absolutely love it.
I use large shrimp, as well as big sea scallops (both cut in half), cod, clams, sherry and saffron.
Today however I tried using almond flour with arrowroot to thicken it, so it would be gluten free, and I also added corn.
It was still delicious, and we’re so glad we can skip the gluten!
Question: could I use Almond or oat milk in place of half and half?
I have never tried either, Gail. Sorry! Let us know if you try it.
Omgosh this was so delicious! So worth the time to make this for dinner tonight. I added lobster to the recipe, will add corn next time I make this. We haven’t had much of a winter here in New Mexico but today this chowder hit the spot for a cold blistery day. Thank you for the recipe.
Awesome recipe!
What does the recipe mean by half and half? I only used a portion of the flour, different country’s I’m guessing. First time cooking seafood chowder, and wasn’t sure what to expect.
Hi Christine, half and half is simply a mixture of equal parts whole milk and cream. :)
easy and delicious!
My husband loves chowders and I spent a good amount of time choosing the perfect recipe. He said that he would marry me again after he tried the soup!! This recipe was a hit and I’ve already added it to my book of our favorites. Don’t skip the leeks!!!
fantastic recipe the only item we added was fresh Canadian cherry stone clams, will be making this again for sure
This was SO DELICIOUS! I used shrimp, clams and fresh caught stripped bass! Next time I will add more seafood! It’s a winner!
Wondering if this chowder is freezer ready
I have never froze it before, so let me know if you try it!
“Not freezer friendly”. The chowder recipe turned out great. However, we tried freezing it for 2 weeks, and cooked it from frozen (low simmer). Results: Soup was very watery, potatoes were mushy, and the creaminess and all around flavor was compromised.
I’ve found that freezing any soups with added potatoes or pasta will result in a mushy texture. In the future, I will refrigerate any leftover soup from this recipe for a couple of days and reheat over a low simmer.
Yes, we would never recommend freezing a “cream” soup. Thanks for your input!
This recipe was great. Used heavy cream instead of half n half, and added sour cream at the end. It exceeded my expectations. And everyo9ne loved it.
I fixed this for lunch today for my husband and I, and we shared with our daughter at her work and her work friends. Every single person absolutely loved it! It was just the right amount of seasoning and seafood, and I can’t think of one thing I would do to improve it.
Amazing. Used Shrimp, Scallops & Clams.
I took a long time to find the kind of seafood chowder recipe I wanted . This recipe was so good. I used shrimp, scallops, and haddock and the consistency was perfect.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!
I’ve never made seafood chowder and decided to give it a shot and used your recipe. Absolutely amazing, I added scallops, and lobster meat.
Thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe, my family devoured it so was a hit in our home.
AWESOME Connie, would you be able to rate it? So glad you enjoyed it.
I changed it up. I added 1 lb of small scallops, instead of salad shrimp I added 2 lbs of large shrimp, (scallops and shrimp sautéed in bacon grease and garlic salt) and for the crab I steamed crab legs and added the meat. It was so good my Dad loved it! It was his Christmas gift from me.
Thank you so much! Next we are adding lobster meat!
Absolutely delicious! I used 1/2lb scallops, 1/2lb shrimp and just under a pound of fresh chopped clams. Will be making again for sure!
Everyone loved this. I used frozen raw shrimp not peeled the canned clams and some haddock and there was lots of seafood flavour. I like how everything is cookd together to maintain nutrients instead of draining them away in boiling water.
Best chowder ever! I didn’t have a leek and I reduced the flour to only 1/4c and made a roux with the left over bacon fat and added half of the half and half to it. Will make again for sure!
Excellent…..very thick and tasty. I used shrimp, clams, and scallops!
I added carrots and corn. Should fill ant appetite!
First time making chowder, it’s my husband’s favorite. this recipe was spot on! I followed the recipe exactly minus the leeks. unfortunately the leeks at my local grocer were not up to par. Even without them this is delicious. Next time I will add the leeks and a bit more seafood. So good on frozen winter day!
EXCELLENT RECIPE!!! My husband and I each had two small crocks of it when I first completed the chowder- we loved the heartiness and assortment of goodies that was all throughout this yummy stew! I’ll make it again and again I can tell you that now. Thanks! 🍲
This was a delicious! We enjoyed it so much and everyone loved the taste. We were always intimidated by the idea of making our own clam chowder. Your suggestions were easy to follow and the results was delicious. Thank you.