It’s officially cold fall weather here… perfect soup weather. Clam chowder is an all-time favorite of mine… so creamy, flavorful, yet it still tastes fresh. I got a little adventurous on this one (well, for me anyway), as I’ve never made clam chowder at home before, and have never steamed my own fresh clams… like ever. I’m not a huge seafood person (I’m more of a chicken and beef gal), but I have a soft spot for clams… specifically, clam chowder and fried clam strips. Ooooh, note to self: make fried clam strips at home soon! Alright, back to the post here lol… our usual grocery stores didn’t have any fresh clams (just the canned stuff), but luckily, my husband works over near a crazy, awesome, grocery store called Jungle Jims. LOVE that store. They had 2 types of clams… giant ones as big as my hand, and smaller ones. I took a guess and thought that maybe the smaller ones would be more tender and therefore better tasting, but I could have been completely wrong lol. He got us about 2 lbs. of fresh “live” clams, packed in some ice, and they hung out in my fridge for less than a day before steaming them. The inspiration for this recipe comes from HERE, and was aptly named “the best clam chowder”… well named ma’am, WELL named 🙂
Just bring your clam ingredients to a boil, add your clams, cover them, and steam until they open up (took me about 6-7 minutes). If one or two doesn’t open up, just toss those, they’re not good. Drain your clams, scoop out the meat, and chop. Not difficult, at all 🙂
Now I did have to prep my clams by scrubbing them and letting them hang out in some salted water in the refrigerator.
Hanging out in the bag before I cleaned them
Scrubbed and soaking in water until I’m ready to steam them
While they’re soaking I got to work chopping my veggies, celery, onion and leek. Now celery and onion, you know what they look like chopped, but a leek is a little different. If you’ve never used one before, they look like this
Kind of like a green onion on steriods! There’s a lot of layers, which means a lot of grit and dirt in between each layer… so to make quick work of cleaning them, I sliced them as is, then put them in some water (I just used my kitchen sink, filled about a 1/3 of the way up with water), stir them around a little with your hand, then let them sit. The grit and dirt will sink, leaving your leeks clean and yummy. Just strain them out onto a paper towel to dry.
See some of the dirt? Gross man, just gross
Soaking in the pool
Squeaky clean!
Veggies make me happy lol
Now it’s time for those clams to take their steam bath!
Coming up to a boil
Opened up and ready to eat!
Softening up your veggies
Looks yummy already!
This is what your flour mixture will look like when it comes out of the oven
This part doesn’t look so appetizing, but once you add the cream, it’ll look like what you expect clam chowder to look like
Ohhhhh yeah!
I wanted to top my chowder with a little bacon, because what isn’t better with bacon on it? So I baked some bacon earlier in the day, crumbled it and saved it for dinner time. Okay, so I may have eaten a strip or two… I think that’s the cook’s prerogative 😛
Recipe adapted from Fav Family Recipes
Knock Your Socks Off Clam Chowder
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup butter melted
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup celery finely diced
- 1 cup onions finely diced
- 1 cup leeks finely diced
- 3-4 cups red potatoes diced use more or less depending on how thick you like your chowder
- 3/4 cup fresh clams steamed shelled and chopped
- 3/4 Tbsp black pepper
- 1 1/2 Tbsp salt
- 3/4 Tbsp dried thyme
- 2 sprigs fresh thyme
- 6 leaves bay
- 4 shakes Tabasco sauce
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 3/4 cup clam juice
- 1 quart half and half
- TO STEAM THE CLAMS
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 6 cloves garlic crushed
Instructions
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FOR THE CLAMS
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Scrub your clams to get rid of any grit, and place in a bowl of salted water in the refrigerator.
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Bring your water, chicken broth and garlic to a boil. Add your clams, cover, and steam until
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they open up (around 6-7 minutes).
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If one or two clams don't open up, toss those, they're not good. Drain your clams, scoop out
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the meat and chop.
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FOR THE CHOWDER
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Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
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Melt your butter in a baking dish (I use a glass loaf pan), stir in flour and bake for 25-30
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minutes.
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Place your soup pot over medium heat, add a little butter. Soften your vegetables for 3-5
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minutes.
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Add all remaining ingredients EXCEPT flour mixture and half and half. Bring to a boil, cover,
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and let simmer for 15 minutes or so, until your potatoes are tender.
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Stir in your flour mixture once it's done baking. It will thicken the soup to an almost cookie
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dough consistency. Don't worry, it's supposed to look like that for now.
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Take off the heat and slowly stir in your half and half until soup is thick and creamy.
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Place back on the heat to warm through. Serve and enjoy!
Wow that clam chowder looks so thick you could eat with a fork. Salad also looks yummy.
It was definitely thick and creamy 🙂 Thank you!
That looks fantastic!
Thank you!!! It was amazing, and the leftovers were really great too 🙂
Wow that looks thick and yummy! I’ve never cooked my own clams either. I need to pull up my big girl pants and give it a try. I’m pinning this for when that happens! 🙂
Thank you!!!! I was verrrrry nervous lol. I think the flavor difference was worth it. Hope you love it when you try it 🙂
This is my all-time favorite soup/chowder… and your recipe and presentation look amazing.
Thank you!! The leftovers have been great all week 🙂
Congratulations on a successful first try! This chowder looks fabulous. 🙂
Thank you very much!! 🙂
…..Annnnddd….. PINNED! I might just pin this two or three times! I’m from New England so I’m allowed to officially state that this look like the best clame chowder recipe EVER. I have a great recipe on my site, but after seeing these pictures… I have to try yours! I love that you used fresh clams, that’s the way to do it. Oh, and I REALLY want to make my own fried clams at home too— I love the whole belly ones, but strips are also delicious! (Man, now I really want clams… shoot.)- There’s a soup place near me, I might have to go see if they have clam chowder…. Those pics look way too good…thanks for sharing : )
You are so sweet!!! I’m jealous that you’re in New England and have access to super fresh clams 🙂 Thank you so much for the compliments, pins and tweet! 😀 I’m off to peruse your site, I’m sure I’ll find tons of things to make there too!
I’ve always wanted to make clam chowder, but it always seemed so intimidating. Yours look so do-able and now I’m soo tempted to run out for clams! Thanks for sharing at FF!
You’re welcome! Seafood in general always intimidates me… if you try it, I hope you love it 😀
Impressive pictures! Looks delicious. I’m also not a big seafood fan, but do love clam chowder. It’s interesting that you put in bacon — restaurants seem to be doing this more and more to chowder as well. I wonder if bacon in clam chowder isn’t the new norm. (If so, though, is it cheating? Are they doing it to mask blandness or something?)
Thank you!! 🙂 It very well could be that they add it to cover up a bland chowder. I wanted to add pancetta, but only had bacon… we add bacon to a lot of foods lol 🙂
That clam chowder looks worth digging into on a cold evening!
We all love clam chowder here but I have to admit that is one recipe I have not tackled because my family has such high expectations. My in laws used to have a house on Martha’s Vineyard and the chowder there, especially at certain restaurants, was just amazing. I think I am going to have to give your recipe a try…it looks really good! Thanks for sharing with us at Foodie Fridays! Pinning!
Oh wow, I hope you love it!!! Yeah I would be scared to try a clam chowder as well because I’d be worried that wouldn’t compare to the chowder over there…. that’d be hard to beat. Living in the midwest, I’ve actually never been to the east coast, but I’d love to go sometime to try things like that 🙂 Thank you and let me know how you like it!
LOVE that you used fresh clams! This looks amazing, my boyfriend will love this recipe 🙂
Thanks Amanda
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Hi Sabrina 🙂 Fresh is always soooo much better in my opinion 🙂 I hope you both love it!