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
- 12 oz salad shrimp, bay shrimp
- 12 oz crabmeat, shredded
- Bay leaf
- 1-2 Tbsp Old Bay seasoning, or more
- 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...
I added cod. It was so good!!!
Made this for a family lunch, everyone really enjoyed it. Will definitely be making this again.
I make fish chowder a lot first I soak salted cod in water overnight and add this in to the chowder it gives great flavour to the chowder , then you can add in any fish or seafood you like
Really great tasting and simple enough to make.