Easy Clam Chowder Recipe

Soup season is upon us once again and Clam Chowder was a recipe that I’ve been wanting to make and share on this blog for a while now.  Clam chowder is a creamy based soup made with potatoes, onions, carrots, celery, and clams. The juice from the clams helps give the soup its clam flavor so don’t skip out on that ingredient and don’t accidentally drain the juices into the sink. Ha! 

Top the soup with some chopped bacon or cheese if you have the ingredients on hand.  I have tons of other soup recipes on this site and make sure to check out some other soup recipes below. 

Ingredients for Clam Chowder 

Vegetables: potatoes, onions, celery, and carrots 

Chopped Clams: super fresh clams can be hard to find in some cities especially here in the Midwest so that is why I prefer to use canned 

Seasonings: Salt and Pepper 

Butter and flour to thicken the chowder

Milk: usually heavy cream is used in a traditional chowder but I used milk to help lighten the soup up a bit. 

Additional ingredients not listed but would also be good in this chowder would be bacon or some cheese sprinkled on top of the chowder. 

How to make Clam Chowder  

For the full recipe please see recipe card below. 

Melt the butter in a stockpot or Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the onions, celery, and carrots and continue cooking for 3 to 5 minutes or until the onions are translucent. 

Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir until lightly browned, 1 minute. Pour in 2 cups of water. Add the potatoes a long with the canned clams and juices.  Bring to a simmer and cook the potatoes until tender. 15 minutes. 

Stir in milk until heated through. Season with salt and pepper to taste. 

Garnish with chopped bacon, cheese, scallions, or chives if desired. 

Other Soup Recipes to Try 

Slow Cooker Creamy Chicken Noodle Soup – tired of plain boring chicken noodle soup? Give this one a try! 

Winter Minestrone Soup – a hearty vegetable soup with pasta 

Instant Pot Ham and Potato Soup – If you still have some leftover ham from Easter this is a great recipe to get rid of some of those leftovers 

Instant Pot Broccoli Cheddar Soup – a simple copy cat  version of Panera’s soup 

If you’ve tried this Clam Chowder or any other recipe on the site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out. Snap a picture and upload it to share on Pinterest or Instagram! Make sure to tag me in the photo.

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