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★ Why You'll Love this Recipe ★
Restaurant Quality, Made at Home
Rich creamy clam chowder is something you'd expect to find on the menu at a fancy restaurant but maybe not something you'd you'd think of in terms of a recipe you could make at home.
Homemade clam chowder that's full of flavor.
Now, you could just save yourself some trouble and grab a can of clam chowder soup. However, once you taste the difference between homemade clam chowder and the canned stuff, I have a feeling you won't want to go back.
Clam Chowder in a Bread Bowl
This clam chowder is super fun to serve in a round loaf of bread, hollowed out to make a bowl. Pick up a round loaf of bakery bread or make your own homemade bread bowls.
★ Ingredients You'll Need ★
Here's a look at everything you'll need to make a creamy and delicious clam chowder.
- Cooked clams. See FAQ for how to cook fresh clams or use 26.5 oz can of clams.
- Butter.
- Celery.
- Corn. Corn off the cob tastes best but frozen corn will also work. Canned corn will work too. Drain and rinse it for best falvor.
- Potatoes. Any color.
- Garlic paste. Or feel free to use fresh garlic.
- Onion. White or yellow.
- Flour.
- Chicken stock.
- Clam juice. This comes in a can or jar.
- White cooking wine. Or a dry white wine.
- Heavy cream. Milk can also be used.
Toppings (Optional but encouraged)
- Green onions.
- Bacon bits.
- Sea salt and freshly cracker pepper.
★ Tips & FAQs ★
The good news, my friends, is that creamy clam chowder is surprisingly easy to make at home. Even with fresh clams. Clams are actually quite easy to cook. The hardest of cooking clams is actually buying them. Many of the higher end grocery stores do carry fresh seafood at an affordable cost. Actually, as far as seafood goes, clams are one of the most affordable options.
Now, if you're looking for the freshest best tasting clams, they are naturally in season during the months that contain the letter "R." So in you want to buy your clams in season, then plan to shop between September and April. Of course, thanks to modern conveniences, you can pretty much find fresh clams at any time.
You might be thinking... What about canned clams? Yes, you could use canned clams to make this clam chowder. They have a decent amount of flavor and are certainly an easier, more accessible option than fresh. If you're short on time, you can also opt for canned clams but my feeling is, if you're going to the trouble of making clam chowder from scratch, you might as well start with fresh clams.
So, once you've decide on the type of clams you'll go for, it's really just a matter of making a creamy soup base. Clams, which do have a distinct flavor, aren't extremely flavorful by themselves. So the chowder does require some doctoring to really enhance the flavor of the clams an to ultimately achieve that rich taste you've come to expect when dining at an upscale restaurant.
If you are using live clams, then you might need to know how to cook them. Here's how:
How to prep clams for cooking:
First, sort your clams. Remove any clams with shells that are damaged. Then completely submerge your live clams in cold water and soak them for 20 minutes to remove sand. The clams will actually clean themselves! Their natural filtration cycle will push out the sand and will take in the fresh water. You may need to also scrub the outside of the shells if they appear dirty or gritty.
How to steam clams:
Heat 2 tablespoon butter in a large skillet until bubbly. Add 1 tablespoon minced garlic and cook for one minute. Then add ½ cup white wine and juice from half a lemon. Once boiling add live clams and cover. Steam for about 6-10 minutes or until clams have opened up. If you find any that are still tightly closed, then you'll want to toss them out.
★ More Seafood Recipes ★
More Soup Recipes
Love a good soup? Browse all my easy soup recipes.
This recipe was featured on South Your Mouth and Raising Homemaking!
Creamy Clam Chowder
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 dozen cooked clams or 26.5 oz cans of clams - see above for how to cook clams
- 4 tablespoon butter
- 2 ribs celery chopped
- 1 cup corn
- 2 large potatoes cubed
- 1 tablespoon garlic paste
- ½ onion finely chopped
- ¼ cup flour
- 1 ½ cups chicken stock
- 8 oz clam juice
- ½ cup white wine a dry wine is best
- 1 cup heavy cream
Toppings (Optional)
- green onion sliced
- bacon bits
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Mighty Mrs. is a #WalmartPartner.
Instructions
- First boil cubed potatoes* in a small pot for about 15 minutes or until soft. Drain and set aside.
- In a large pot or dutch oven, heat butter on medium until bubbling. Add chopped celery. Cook for about 2 minutes then add chopped onion and corn. Cook for 2 minutes then add garlic. Cook for an additional minute.
- Stir in flour with a whisk. Heat until bubbly. Cook, stirring frequently for about 1 minute.**
- Stir in chicken stock, cooked clams and clam juice.Add white wine and heavy cream. Simmer for about 5-7 minutes.
- Finally, gently stir in cooked potatoes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into bowls and top with green onions and/or bacon.
Notes
- * You can leave the skin on the potatoes or peel. Your choice.
- **Letting the flour and butter bubble together cooks out the floury taste and enhances the overall flavor of the chowder.
JANET B DEVINE says
This was delicious!!! I added sauteed leeks, hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and 1/4 a cup of sherry with the wine. Came out great!!!
Julie says
I’m confused by the nutrition fact. It doesn’t seem like it should have over 600 calories for 1 serving,but then again I dont know what the serving size was. Is one serving, 1 Cup ? Also, the carbs seem very high to me as well, the only carbs is the corn and the potatoes, correct me if I’m wrong. Thank you
Angela G. says
Hi Julie, Thanks for asking. I just updated the recipe to set the serving size at 1.5 cups. This generated new nutrition facts that should be more accurate for you. You may need to hit refresh on your browser to see the update.
Lee S says
I made Linguine with clams for NYE and ended up with a few dozen extra clams so I thought a chowder would be perfect. I had all the ingredients except the heavy cream or the clam juice, so I improvised. I had cream cheese and oat milk, so I blended the two until a consistency of heavy cream and it worked perfectly. As a clam juice substitute, I had an open tin of anchovy from the linguine recipe, so I blended 2 chopped anchovies with 2 cups of chicken broth and then added additional anchovy to taste. It made a better substitute than I would have imagined. I was able to use leftover clams and improvise with what I had in the fridge. The base recipe is so good my substitutions were barely noticed.
Angela G. says
Sounds great, Lee! Glad you enjoyed the recipe and put your leftover clams to use.
Ann M says
So good ! I’ll never buy can again
Angela G. says
Hi Ann, so glad you liked it! Homemade is almost always better. 🙂
Ann M says
So good ! I’ll never buy canned again !
Janine says
I noticed in your recipe instructions you do not indicate when to add the cooked clams to the soup pot.
Angela G. says
Hi Janine, The cooked clams go in with the clam juice. That gives them a little time to heat up but not get overcooked. Thanks for asking! Hope you enjoy the chowder!