Seafood Chowder

Seafood Chowder is hearty, filling, delicious, and super easy to make. You’ll wow everyone with this simple recipe!

Seafood Chowder is a favorite dish in our house.  It’s rich and hearty, super filling and a total comfort food.  It’s easy to prepare in the slow cooker, instant pot, or on the stove top!

Make this Seafood Chowder recipe with a side of our French bread recipe or some quick dinner rolls.

Seafood Chowder

Seafood Chowder Ingredients

• Bacon – I like to make bacon in the oven ahead of time and then keep it in the freezer for later use in recipes.
• Potatoes – Russet potatoes are what we usually use, but I also love this seafood chowder with red potatoes.  They’re so creamy!
• Corn – Canned corn or frozen corn is my go-to for this recipe.
• Onion – Another hack I love is to buy pre-chopped onion from the freezer section of our market for times when I’m in a rush and need to get dinner on the table quickly.
• Celery – I don’t have any hacks for celery, but in random news, the farm that supplies a lot of the celery to US markets is in my town!
• Garlic – I like to buy pre-minced garlic from the produce section and keep it in the fridge. We use fresh usually, but it’s a great shortcut when you need it.
• Seasoned salt – Regular salt will work in a pinch, but seasoned salt adds more flavor.
• Chicken stock – I like to make my own chicken stock and turkey stock, but you can buy it in cartons on the soup aisle too, or use a bouillon paste or bouillon cubes.
• Heavy cream – If you’re not a fan of heavy cream you can substitute with half and half or whole milk.  I really suggest using heavy cream though, it makes the flavor so much more rich.

Seafood Options

We like to include shrimp, scallops, mussels, and even chunks of fish. You can include several types of seafood or just one or two types, depending on what you enjoy.

I generally buy bags of mixed frozen seafood from my market for this recipe. Just make sure to thaw them before adding to the recipe. Seafood thaws quickly in a water bath.

Pro tip: If you don’t like seafood, try making this with ham!  I love to use the leftovers from our crock pot ham recipe.

How Do You Make a Seafood Chowder

⭐ First, combine all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood in your choice of cooking vessel.

⭐ Next, cook until potatoes are fork tender.

⭐ Then, blend about half the soup (I like to use an immersion blender).

⭐ Finally, add heavy cream and seafood, then continue cooking until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature.

What Type of Seafood in Seafood Chowder

The type of seafood in seafood chowder is really up to the chef.  I like to grab a bag of mixed frozen seafood from our market that usually contains shrimp, mussels, calamari, and scallops.

Other times though, I’ll just get a bag of shrimp and a bag of small scallops.  I think the small scallops are my absolute favorite in this chowder recipe.  If you don’t like or have an allergy to shellfish, you could also use fish like tilapia, white fish, or even salmon.

Preparation

Slow Cooker

To make seafood chowder in the slow cooker, you’ll want to combine all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood in the slow cooker. Cook on low for 8 – 10 hours or high for 4 – 6 hours.

Blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to slow cooker).

Add heavy cream and seafood, then continue cooking, uncovered, for about another 10 – 15 minutes, until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature (145 °F for fish and shellfish).

Instant Pot

Instant Pot seafood chowder is made by combining all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood in the inner pot of the Instant Pot.

Cook on manual for 5 minutes, natural pressure release about 10 minutes. Then, blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to Instant Pot).

Add heavy cream and seafood, then continue cooking on saute mode, uncovered, for about another 10 minutes (stirring frequently), until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature (145 °F for fish and shellfish). Do not boil.

Stove Top

Seafood Chowder can by made on the stove top by combine all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood into a large stock pot.

Cover and bring to a simmer. Then cook about 15 minutes more, until potatoes are fork tender.
Blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to stock pot).

Add heavy cream and seafood, then continue simmering, uncovered, for about another 10 – 15 minutes, until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature (145 °F for fish and shellfish).

❤ Do you love recipes that can be made in the instant pot or slow cooker? Try our Italian beef recipe! ❤

How Do You Thicken Seafood Chowder

To thicken seafood chowder, you can blend up some of the potatoes, add a scoop or two of dried potato flakes, or add a slurry of corn starch.

To make a corn starch slurry, add 3 tablespoons of corn starch to 3 tablespoons of cold water and mix well.  Stir it into the soup and simmer for a few minutes.  When the corn starch reaches 95F it will thicken. You can add more as needed.

How Long Do You Cook Seafood Chowder

How long to cook seafood chowder will depend on which method you use.  On the stovetop, total time will be 30 – 40 minutes. In the pressure cooker seafood chowder will take about 20 minutes (not counting the time it takes to pressurize). And slow cooker seafood chowder will take between 4 – 10 hours depending on whether you cook on low or high.

More awesome soup recipes

• Crockpot Corn Chowder
• Potato Soup
• Asparagus Soup
• Split Pea Soup

Complete your meal with our recipe suggestions

• French Bread Recipe
• Dinner Rolls
• Beer Bread

Tools we love

• Santuko knife – My favorite knife for cutting vegetables!  This knife is the perfect size and shape, handles great, and is super reasonably priced.  Also, I just love that it’s fun and colorful!
• Instant Pot electric pressure cooker – Hey there working parent!  It’s me!  Also a working parent!  Can we talk about how hard it is to get a healthy dinner on the table during the week?  So. Hard.  Well, Imma tell you – this electric pressure cooker, and my gas grill are the saving graces in our home.  A delicious roast with carrots and potatoes in 45 minutes? Yes, please!  You’re seriously going to love this one!
• 6.5 Quart dutch oven – This enameled cast iron dutch oven can go from stove top to oven, and look beautiful doing it.  Perfect for chilis, roasts, breads, and stews.  Mine is yellow, what color will you choose?

How to Make Seafood Chowder

Seafood Chowder

Seafood Chowder is hearty, filling, delicious, and super easy to make. You'll wow everyone with this simple Seafood Chowder recipe!

5 from 6 votes

Print Pin Rate

Course: Main Course, Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: seafood chowder

Prep Time: 15 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes minutes

Servings: 8

Calories: 400kcal

Author: April Woods

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound bacon 8 ounce package, cooked until crispy and crumbled
• 2 1/2 pounds Russet potatoes approximately 5 medium sized potatoes, NOT peeled, diced into 1/4 inch cubes
• 8 cups kernel corn about 2 pounds
• 1 medium/large sweet yellow onion finely chopped
• 1 cup diced celery
• 6 garlic cloves minced
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoned salt
• 4 cups chicken stock 32 ounces
• 2 cups heavy cream 16 ounces
• salt and pepper
• 1 pound mixed seafood

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Instructions

Slow Cooker

• Combine all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood in the slow cooker.
• Cook on low for 8 - 10 hours or high for 4 - 6 hours.
• Blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to slow cooker).
• Add heavy cream and seafood, then continue cooking, uncovered, for about another 10 - 15 minutes, until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature (145 °F for fish and shellfish). Salt and pepper to taste.

Instant Pot

• Combine all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood in the inner pot of the Instant Pot.
• Cook on manual for 5 minutes, natural pressure release about 10 minutes.
• Blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to Instant Pot).
• Add heavy cream and seafood, then continue cooking on saute mode, uncovered, for about another 10 minutes (stirring frequently), until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature (145 °F for fish and shellfish). Do not boil. Salt and pepper to taste.

Stove Top

• Combine all ingredients EXCEPT cream and seafood into a large stock pot.
• Cover and bring to a simmer. Then cook about 15 minutes more, until potatoes are fork tender.
• Blend about half the soup using an immersion blender (or just scoop it into your upright blender then return to stock pot).
• Add heavy cream and seafood, then continue simmering, uncovered, for about another 10 - 15 minutes, until heated through and meat has reached a safe temperature (145 °F for fish and shellfish). Salt and pepper to taste.

Video

Notes

I like to grab a 1 pound bag of mixed seafood from the freezer section of our market for this. Or sometimes I'll grab a half pound bag of frozen (peeled!) shrimp and a half pound of frozen mini scallops.  Just make sure you defrost before dumping them into the soup!

Calories are automatically generated. For best results calculate based on your exact ingredients. 

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Nutrition

Calories: 400kcal

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Recipe FAQS

What goes with seafood chowder?

Traditionally you'll want to have oyster crackers or saltines with this chowder recipe.

How do I thicken seafood chowder?

We like to thicken seafood chowder by blending some of the potatoes and then stirring them back into the soup. You can also create a corn starch slurry.

Can seafood chowder be frozen?

It is not recommended to freeze this recipe.

This Seafood Chowder was originally developed in collaboration with Mirum.  All opinions and content belong to Mama Loves Food. 

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