New England Clam Chowder Recipe

Reading the reviews before making this recipe I made the following changes: I used bottled clam juice instead of the water (1 ½ cups); 2 cups half-and-half and one-cup heavy cream instead of 3 cups half-and-half, and 3 - 10oz. cans of clams. The other adjustment I made was to use 1-cup ham instead of bacon as I find that bacon gets to soggy in soups, the ham is a perfect substitute and give the soup a bit more bite.

Wonderful chowder with a couple of minor modifications to suit our preferences. I appreciate you posting this recipe as I'd never made a creamy chowder before, and needed a good, basic guideline & procedure to follow. I cooked the chopped onions and diced bacon in a few tablespoons of melted butter, then added a couple of tablespoons of flour thus creating a roux. Otherwise, I followed the recipe, but omitted water and substituted more clam juice instead, doubled the potatoes. After the potatoes were cooked through in the clam juice, I reduced the heat to a low simmer, then I added twice the amount of clams (I used half minced clams and half chopped clams), and used 1 quart half & half with about a pint of heavy cream. I stirred it often making sure the cream wasn't allowed to boil. I threw in a couple of tablespoons of dried parsely, and a couple of teaspoons of dried dill weed. I served this at a potluck with fresh french bread, and got huge raves, and lots of recipe requests. Thank you!!! 07/15/2012: Made this again last night...just delicious! I've found that precooking the bacon til crisp then adding to the roux of butter, onions and flour makes a huge difference. Also, replacing all water with clam juice adds great flavor.

I use the reserved clam juice to boil the potatoes. I crisp the bacon before adding anything else. I also add either fresh thyme or fresh dill. I like mine a little thicker, so I thicken it with a slurry of milk and flour. A pinch of cayenne brings it up a notch.

Great base recipe - I never made a chowder b4. I tweaked the ingredients using what I had. I parboiled diced potato until still a touch firm. Drained and saved 1 cup of potato water. Cooked a lot of diced bacon until crisp and put onto a paper bag. Cooked diced onion, carrot, and celery until soft. Then I placed them into a pot, added potato's, 1 cup potato water, liquid from 1 can of minced clams, 2 cups half n half, 3/4 stick butter, salt n pepper, pinch cayenne for Chef John, and heated until low boil. Diminished temp to below a boil and simmered 10 minutes. Added 2 cans clams, bacon, 1/4 can corn, and cont. simmering. Finally I added another can of whole clams ( all I had ), the other clam liquid, teaspoon full of bacon fat, more pepper. Lastly - I used a spoonful of a Corn starch slurry. Wonderful. I'm very strange about food and only do soup about 3 months a year. Love NE clam chowder and have always lived on Progresso, or chunky. This came out different but excellent. Fresher - ?healthier? - shrug. I will make again for sure. TY your recipe guided me through.

When using bacon or ham, always season with salt at the end of cooking AFTER you've tasted the final results. You will usually find that there is plenty of salt naturally from the ingredients already added previously and no or very little extra salt will be needed. It's better to sneak up on it then to have too much from the very beginning.

I love this recipe. So do my extended family. I use clam juice instead of water, and heavy cream instead of half and half, and butter. My family likes a little zip so I do add cayenne pepper. Tried this as written and then adjusted to our liking there after, It is a keeper.

I appreciate the framework of this recipe but took inspiration from other soup recipes to address some of the issues described in other reviews. Cook bacon strips in a pan and when crispy remove. Then cook onion in the bacon grease. Meanwhile parboil potatoes in a separate pot. Once they are fork tender, drain and add to skillet with onion. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Once onions are translucent, add potato and onion mixture back to pot used for potatoes. Add 1 and 1/2 cups of chicken stock and clam liquid, bring to simmer. Optional: mash some of the potato mixture with a masher. Melt four tablespoons of butter in a small pot then whisk in a quarter cup flour to make a roux. This will be used to thicken your soup. Cook for about 5 minutes on low. Gradually whisk in half and half, a little at a time, two cups total. Once all half and half is used cook on low for about 10 minutes to thicken. Add clams to pot then add the roux. You may want to add a little more half and half depending on the consistency you like your soup. Serve and top with crumbled bacon.

OK, I've made this many times. I have also made it Keto, by using Cauliflower instead of potatoes. I use this recipe as a ballpark guideline. Clearly 15 minutes is really not enough time to cook the potatoes properly. My revisions: I start with fresh chowder clams or cherrystones. 2 dozen. Large pot, half full of water. At least 6-8 cups. I boil them, one layer in shell until shell is open. I remove the clams when the shell opens, and continue until all are cooked and open. I set the open clams aside, and remove them from the shell. Chop them and add later per recipe. I reserve ALL liquid I cooked the clams in, and I strain it through a colander lined with paper towel to remove any sand that settled. Reserving all strained liquid clams cooked in as the base instead of just water. I continue per recipe, cooking potatoes covered until cooked, then add clams, cream, butter etc. I also modify this recipe to make a fish chowder, and a seafood chowder as well, by adding fish/shrimp as well as the clams. I will also thicken with Wondra flour after the cream is warm.

I halved the recipe because there are only two of us. I pretty much stuck to the recipe, except I may have had a bit more than two cups of diced potatoes, so I added enough water to cover them. I brought them to a boil and then lowered the heat so that they were gently boiling. 15 minutes is exactly how long I boil my mashed potatoes and it was perfect for this recipe. The water boiled down just right with the lid off. I had 6.5 oz. cans of clams, so I used 2 cans, about 13 ozs. There was just over a cup of juice and I used half of it. However, we aren’t really fond of a strong fish taste, so, the next time I make it, I will probably add a bit less. I may add a little extra half and half to cut the fish taste, but, other than that, I will definitely make this recipe again. To me, the thickness was just right. Thanks for the recipe!

This was delicious chowder! I used white and black pepper for a delicious pepper flavor, added 2 cloves of chopped garlic. To add a bit of extra texture to the broth, I added an extra cup of peeled, diced, red potatoes, cooked seperately, and blended it in the blender before adding it to the soup. The flavor is amazing!

Definitely added more onion (4C) andclams (25oz), I used heavy cream instead of half and half and Cajun seasoning instead of salt. Man the house smells good right now!

Family love

I used fresh clams and 1.5 cups of heavy cream and 1.5 cups of whole milk instead of the half and half.

Keeper

Turned out perfect. I used bacon ends instead of regular bacon. Also used heavy cream instead of Half & Half.

Unfortunately this chowder was way too runny, but it had decent flavor. May trying thickening with corn starch or flour if I try to make it again.

I cut the recipe in half because it was just 2 of us. For some reason it came out watery. Wish I can figure out where I went wrong, for the next time. Other wise it was delicious.

I did add some clam juice to the recipe.

I altered the recipe and poured all the clam juice from both 10 oz cans and added 6 tsp of corn starch a little bit at a time because it needed thickening. The flavor is very authentic. I also cubed the potatoes into smaller pieces and added celery, a small amount of carrots and larger amount of celery, all minced and precooked in the microwave to cook faster and thoroughly in my pot. Thanks for an authentic recipe! Buon appetito.

Tastes way better than I expected.