Easy Clam Chowder
by Chungah
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Clam chowder is easier (and much better) to make right at home! So unbelievably creamy, flavorful and chockfull of clams!
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Why you’ll love this easy clam chowder recipe
- Quick, weeknight super hero. Yes, homemade restaurant-quality clam chowder can be made in 30 min or less right at home, an absolute weeknight staple around here!
- Hug-in-a-bowl. This soup just hits right during soup season, perfect for fall and blustery winter nights, or any time you need a soul-warming soothing soup to warm you from the inside out.
- Pantry-friendly recipe. This is also a great budget-friendly recipe using pantry staples like canned clams, adding even more clam flavor goodness (and an abundance of clams!) to your chowder.
What is clam chowder?
Clam chowder is an American soup made with clams, potatoes, onions and broth, often times served with oyster crackers or saltines. There are two regional variations worth mentioning below.
New England Clam Chowder (white)
New England is a thick and creamy white soup, typically made with milk or cream.
Manhattan Clam Chowder (red)
Manhattan is a tomato-rich red soup without milk or cream, and typically includes more vegetables than New England.
How to make clam chowder
- Cook the bacon and aromatics. Cook a few slices of diced bacon in a stockpot or Dutch oven, sautéing the aromatics directly in the rendered bacon fat for all the smoky goodness. Reserve the cooked bacon for topping.
- Create the roux. Whisk in the flour for about 1 minute. This will help thicken the chowder, creating that favorited velvety-rich consistency.
- Stir in liquids and potatoes. Add in milk, vegetable stock, reserved clam juice (from the canned clams), bay leaf and potatoes, simmering until the potatoes are tender. The longer it simmers, the more it will thicken.
- Add half and half (or heavy cream) and clams. Stir in the half and half with the clams until heated through over low heat, working carefully not to boil the dairy (or else it will separate), seasoning with salt and pepper, to taste.
- Serve. Remove the bay leaf and serve warm with the reserved crispy bacon, oyster crackers and cornbread.
why use canned clams in clam chowder?
- Convenience
- Budget-friendly and economical
- Extra clam flavor, especially when using the canned juices
- Abundance of clams
Which potatoes are best for clam chowder?
A lot of recipes recommend waxy potatoes such as Yukon gold or baby red potatoes because they will hold up well in soups. Instead, we opted for russet potatoes here – they are naturally very starchy, ideal for creating a thicker, chowder-like velvety, rich consistency.
what to serve with clam chowder
Tools For This Recipe
Dutch oven
Easy Clam Chowder: Frequently Asked Questions
The most popular chowder is New England (white) made with milk or heavy cream and associated with Boston. There is also the Manhattan (red) made with a tomato-based broth and commonly associated with Manhattan.
Absolutely! Substitute 1 – 1 1/2 cups chopped fresh clams along with bottled clam juice to replace the juice from the can. Chopped fresh clams will need additional cook time to cook through.
Yes! Always thaw properly, adding at the end of cooking as they are already precooked.
Overcooking the clams can cause them to be rubbery. Always add the clams (fresh or canned) at the very end, cooking for just a few minutes so they stay tender.
Clam chowder is commonly paired with oyster crackers and cornbread.
Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Leftover clam chowder can be reheated on the stovetop over low heat until warmed through, adding a splash of milk or stock to thin it out as needed.
We do not recommend freezing this as cream-based soups tend to separate when frozen.
Easy Clam Chowder
Video
Ingredients
- 4 slices bacon, diced
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 onion, diced
- ½ teaspoon dried thyme
- 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- 2 (6.5-ounce) cans chopped clams, juices reserved
- 1 bay leaf
- 2 russet potatoes, peeled and diced
- 1 cup half and half or heavy cream
- Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
- 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley leaves
Instructions
- Heat a large stockpot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add bacon and cook until brown and crispy, about 6-8 minutes. Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate, reserving 1 tablespoon excess fat in the stockpot.
- Melt butter in the stockpot. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring frequently, until onions have become translucent, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in thyme until fragrant, about 1 minute.
- Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, vegetable stock, clam juice and bay leaf, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in potatoes.
- Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes.*
- Reduce heat to low. Stir in half and half and clams until heated through, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste. If the soup is too thick, add more half and half as needed until desired consistency is reached.
- Serve immediately, garnished with bacon and parsley, if desired.
Equipment
Notes
- Start with a smoky base. A good clam chowder starts with a smoky base, beginning with the bacon and sautéing the aromatics (garlic and onion) right in the bacon fat.
- Use the reserved juices. The juices from the canned clams add all the extra, deep clam flavor.
- Russet potatoes serve as a natural thickener. The potatoes will release starch into the broth to create that velvety, restaurant-quality richness.
- Use half and half or heavy cream. Half and half will yield a thinner soup whereas heavy cream will result in more of a rich, velvety, indulgent clam chowder.
- Always add the dairy at the very end. Avoid boiling the half and half or heavy cream, adding it in at the end of cooking time (or else it will curdle).
- Avoid overcooking the clams. Similar to the half and half, add the clams during the last few minutes of cooking. Overcooked clams can be rubbery!
- Simmer, simmer, simmer. The longer it simmers, the more it thickens, making it perfect to cook until the desired consistency is reached.
- Make it clammier. For those wanting extra clam flavor, add an additional can of chopped clams.
- Serve with crusty bread. Serve with all the homemade crusty bread or cornbread for dipping, sopping and dunking!
- Reheat gently. Leftovers can be reheated gently over low heat, adding a splash of milk, half and half or stock as needed.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @damn_delicious on Instagram and hashtag it #damndelicious!
Very tasty recipe. It was a little thinner than I expected
but I would make it the same again.
Love it! Added summer savory and used seafood stock instead of vegetable stock. Plus added an extra 2 cups…. came out delicious! Thank you!
Using seafood stock sounds good. Did you add an extra 2 cups of it? That seems like a lot of broth, am I understanding you correctly?
Using seafood stock, great idea, but not sure where to find it or do you make your own? Also, the summer savory sounds good. Mine just needed a little more of some type of seasoning, so I will try that.
Look forward to trying this. Thanks.
If I were to focus on making a chowder as my main dish – what would you recommend as an appropriate starter?
John.
This recipe was delicious, I got a lot of compliments. I also added celery, and I think next time I’ll add more clams.
Excellent recipe! My husband and I loved it. We tweaked a bit due to not having all ingredients in-house. Had only half an onion so added chopped up celery in place of the other half. I also used dried thyme and parsley instead of fresh, and added a bit of Old Bay and onion powder. Next time I’ll try it with fresh herbs. I’ll also try adding extra clam juice, as others have done. I think I’ll make Damn Delicious one of my favorite recipe sites!
Damn Delicious is absolutely my favorite recipe site! Everything I make from her is a huge hit in my house. I have a feeling it will be the same for you. 🙂
Great recipe, it was delicious but you don’t mention what to do with the reserved fat that you put aside after cooking the bacon.
This soup was easy to make and tasted great. I am not a cook, but the directions were easy to follow and the prep was quick.
I have a quick question. I would really like to make this tonight but I would need to double it … is there any special instructions for doing so?
Hi Alissa! I used this method to increase the recipe for 18 people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uyxpBmqmrE. Hope this helps. 🙂
This was the best Clam Chowder I ever ate,loved it,and shared the receipt with my Daughter and they also loved it.
I made this clam chowder for the first and just cook said it was indeed very easy and damn delicious, I did add few more seasonings which made this recipe damn good. I’ll definitely be make this soup more often. Trecia Williams from Philadelphia
I’ve been making this for about a year or so now. It’s delicious, but it never thickens for me. 🙁
Excellent recipe, however, I wish that it had a tip on how to make the chowder thicker.
You can make a roux to thicken the soup. Take 2 Tbsp butter & melt over med heat. Add 1 heaping Tbsp of flour and stir constantly as it thickens. I add some of the milk from ingredient list as it thickens. Then stir into your chowder. Works every time!
I added more flour in a separate bowl with cold milk and mixed til smooth then pour mixture into soup. Also, I didn’t use any fresh vegetables just the dried powder ones and dried parsley. Delicious clam chowder which is my favorite of all soups.
Judy Babcock
Think I let it get too brown {after adding the flour}, because it’s beige lol. Not exactly what I’m used to with clam chowder, but the flavor is wonderful, and the recipe is a lot simpler than my usual recipe.
This recipe is the best. I do sauté 2 celery stalks finely diced along with the onion.
Didn’t have russet potatoes so quartered baby new potatoes. Really great!
we love this recipe. Quick and delicious.
Best clam chowder I’ve ever made! 4 stars!
This is fabulous! Chock full of clams and such a rich flavor!
Best clam chowder recipe I have ever found! We triple the recipe for my family of 6!
Made this tonight, great recipe!
I used 5 slices of bacon, powdered thyme, 3 (5 ounce cans) of clams (with all juice, since I couldn’t find any 6.5 ounce cans), 2% milk, generic yellow potatoes, and skipped on the bay leaf and parsley. I noticed that on step 3 a layer of my flour ended stuck to the bottom of the stock pot I was using even though I was careful to add and stir in very little at a time, but it didn’t end up changing the final product. The only problem I had with my chowder was that the clams themselves seemed to lack flavour, I’m wondering if brining my canned clams after draining them from the clam juice would improve them, or whether I should just look for fresh clams. Here’s a picture: https://imgur.com/a/CSF6LUB
do you add in the clams along with the clam juice? just double checking 🙂 Thanks!
The clam juice is added in step 3 and the clams are added in step 5. 🙂
3. Whisk in flour until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Gradually whisk in milk, vegetable stock, clam juice and bay leaf, and cook, whisking constantly, until slightly thickened, about 1-2 minutes. Stir in potatoes.
4. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are tender, about 12-15 minutes.*
5. Stir in half and half and clams until heated through, about 1-2 minutes; season with salt and pepper, to taste. If the soup is too thick, add more half and half as needed until desired consistency is reached.
The absolute best I’ve ever made. Everyone loved it!