Seafood Chowder is a delicious, rich creamy soup that is table ready in about 30 minutes!
Tender shrimp, fish and scallops are combined in a creamy white wine broth with veggies. This flavor packed chowder recipe is a comfort food that can be easily enjoyed at home any day of the week!
A really great New England Clam Chowder is one of our favorite ways to enjoy a bowl of comfort food. There is just something so belly warming about a creamy bowl of seafood goodness! This chowder recipe can be prepared on a weeknight because it cooks really quickly!
What is Chowder?
So what makes a soup a chowder?
A chowder is a type of soup that most often (not always) has a creamy base and is chunky in texture. There are a few variations of chowder: clam chowder, corn chowder, and of course, this seafood chowder!
I start by simmering the veggies in seafood or chicken broth for great flavor and then add in the seafood and cream to cook at the end! Chowders can sometimes be thickened using a roux and in the case of this seafood chowder recipe, the potatoes also provide quite a bit of starch to help it thicken it!
Seafood chowder is a complete meal on its own loaded with shrimp, scallops and fish. We add in a side of Easy Homemade Buttermilk Biscuits or Cheddar Bay Biscuits to sop up any of the creamy goodness at the bottom of the bowl!
When I make seafood chowder recipe, I always add corn for a color and a hint of sweetness. If you have extra vegetables you need to use up, this dish is perfect for it! Mushrooms, peppers, or peas all make great additions to this chowder!
How to Make Chowder
While some chowders take longer to cook (like my fave Slow Cooker Corn Chowder) this easy recipe is table ready in about 30 minutes!
- Cook onion in butter. Add flour.
- Add veggies, broth and wine and cook until tender.
- Stir in cream and seafood and simmer a few minutes.
- Serve and enjoy!
You can add any kind of seafood into this chowder recipe; lobster, crab, salmon… just be mindful of cooking time so your seafood doesn’t overcook!
More Creamy Soup Recipes You’ll Love
- Baked Potato Soup – Comforting!
- Creamy Sausage & Cabbage Soup
- Crock Pot Chicken and Dumplings
- Chicken Wild Rice Soup – Creamy and delicious!
- Easy Crock Pot Ham and Potato Soup
- Zuppa Toscana – Family favorite!
Ingredients
- ¼ cup butter
- 1 medium onion diced
- 1 teaspoon Old Bay seasoning
- ¼ teaspoon dried thyme leaves
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 rib celery sliced
- 1 carrot sliced
- 1 pound potatoes peeled and cubed
- ½ cup corn kernels
- 5 cups chicken broth or seafood broth
- ½ cup white wine
- 8 ounces white fish like cod, salmon, tilapia or haddock, cut into chunks
- 8 ounces sea scallops
- 12 ounces medium shrimp peeled and deveined
- 6.5 ounces chopped clams canned, drained
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
Instructions
- Cook onion in butter until tender. Add flour, Old Bay seasoning and thyme and cook 2-3 minutes.
- Add carrot, celery, potato, corn, broth and wine & bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer 10 minutes.
- Stir in seafood and cream. Cook until fish is fully cooked and flaky and potatoes are tender, about 8-10 minutes.
- Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper to taste.
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Soup
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This was a great recipe. Enjoyed it! Easy to make.
Quick question: What kind of white wine?
Any white wine will work, try using something you would like to drink with it!
I am making this tonight, I don’t have white wine and would like to use sherry. How much do you suggest I use? I’m also making shrimp stock for 1/2 of broth and bottled clam juice for the other half do you thins will work okay? Thanks .
I already Posted….But…Have to do a repost. By Far…one of thee Greatest Chowder Recipes I have made.As mentioned in my last Post…Through in two slices of diced Bacon instead of using salt and added a bit of Cornstarch to thicken it up a bit.
Thank You for this Recipe. This will be my “GO TO” chowder Recipe.
Thank you so much Daniel, I’m glad you loved this! I’ll definitely give the bacon a try next time we make it.
I add salt pork instead of bacon it’s fantastic!
Just made this. Came out FANTASTIC. I used two strips of diced bacon(because bacon goes quite well with Chowder) instead of adding salt. Had to add a bit of cornstarch just to thicken it up a bit more. Other than that. Recipe is Fantasticly Tasty.
Should the seafood be slightly and separately precooked before added them?
Seafood cooks quickly and does not need to be pre-cooked for this recipe.
Absolutely delicious. I made this with salmon, shrimp and the chopped clams.
It was so easy and quick to prepare. I thickened it a bit with corn starch and it was perfect. Thank you! I’ll be sure to share your site with friends and love ones.
Thankyou very much I previously had froze some tilapia I grilled
This is perfect on a cold day in Galveston Texas This turned out great
I did not have clam sauce . But I had lobster bisque condensed soup and cream of broccoli and I added Louisiana crawfish seasoning and cayenne pepper we love spicy! Delicious
Thankyou very much
This is perfect on a cold day in Galveston Texas This turned out great
I did not have clam sauce . But I had lobster bisque condensed soup and cream of broccoli and I added Louisiana crawfish seasoning and cayenne pepper we love spicy! Delicious
Sounds perfect Karla! You’re welcome!
Tasty recipe as a whole. Like others, we used half and half since that is what we had on hand. I increased the roux and thickened the chowder by tempering the brothing into the extra roux near the end of the cook.
A trick I’ve used from my restaurant days- you can buy bottled clam juice at most grocery, stores so we used 1 cup in place of the chicken stock. The clam juice gives the chowder an extra seafoody punch.
We like your blog and look forward to trying other recipes.
Thank you for your tips Michael, I bet the clam juice would be great in this!
I’ve never actually rated an online recipe before but I have to on this one! This chowder is amazing! I’m not a chowder expert by any means and there’s probably plenty good recipes online. This is just the first I tried and it will be a staple in my home from now on :)
Thank you so much for coming back to leave a review Rachel! Glad you loved the recipe.
Great!
your recipes look yummy!
Really excellent! My husband used clam juice and Walley (the only fish ewe had) and I think I could have this daily!
My family absolutely adored this recipe even though my husband is not crazy about seafood. I just added another teaspoon of old bay seasoning .Excellent addition to my meals for cold autumn and winter evenings. Love the versatility .Thank you
Awesome simple recipe. Will repeat!
I’ve made this wonderful seafood soup before with a few ingredient changes. My husband is lactose,so therefore I used whole% lactose milk in place of the cream. I added 2 cups of clam juice and the rest chicken stock/broth. The clam juice adds a nice little extra seafoodie kick. I live in New Hampshire and the winters can make you long for a nice warm sunny summer day. when I look out my window and the snow is just a coming down and I’m starting to long for a warm sunny day,I make this wonderful seafood soup and it helps me take away those winter blues. Enjoy!
Delicious! I added a few Tbl of sugar, which is a northern US thing and it came out great.
This was delicious! I also added king crab which sent it over the top!
This was a huge hit!!! This was the first chowder I’ve ever made and it was delicious. Brought to family gathering and absolutely everyone loved it. I’ll be making this again, and again. I didn’t have scallops so I just put in extra shrimp.
Very easy to make, yet amazingly tasty!!!