Seafood chowder
Flaky white fish, sweet shrimp and clams in a thick, creamy potato chowder with a little bacon and dill, a cozy bowl from the coast.
- 55 min total
- 40 min hands-on
- A little more hands-on
- Serves 4
- About $5.38 a serving
- 560 calories
Dolly says: Read the steps once before you start. Everything goes smoother after that.
Ingredients
For 4 servings.
- 1 can canned chopped clams, 6.5 oz
- 3 slices bacon, chopped
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 lb Yukon Gold potatoes, diced
- 1 lb frozen white fish fillets, thawed and cut into 1-inch pieces
- 8 oz raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
- 2 tbsp butter
- 1 tsp Old Bay seasoning
- 2 cups chicken broth
- 1½ cups half-and-half
- 2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped
- ½ lemon, cut into wedges
From your pantry
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 bay leave
Each serving has about 560 calories, 42 g protein, 37 g carbs and 28 g fat, and costs about $5.38 at typical US grocery prices. Both are estimates from what the recipe uses.
Missing something?
- No yellow onions? White onions or red onions work.
- No Yukon Gold potatoes? Russet potatoes or red potatoes work.
- No raw shrimp? Frozen raw shrimp works.
- No butter? Ghee works.
- No chicken broth? Vegetable broth or bone broth works.
- No lemons? Limes work.
Steps
Tap an underlined word for a quick explanation.
the clams over a bowl, saving the juice. the bacon, the onion, celery and potatoes, the garlic, and cut the thawed fish into 1-inch pieces.
Drain. Draining means pouring off liquid, like tipping pasta into a colander or spooning extra fat out of the pan. Pour hot grease into a can or jar, not the sink, where it hardens and clogs the pipes.
How you’ll know: Only a few drips are left, and the food isn’t sitting in a puddle.
Chop. Chopping means cutting food into bite-size pieces that don’t need to be neat. Keep them roughly the same size so everything cooks evenly.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are about half an inch and roughly alike, even if none of them are pretty.
Dice. Dicing means cutting food into small, even cubes, usually a quarter to half an inch across. Pieces the same size cook at the same speed, so nothing burns while the rest catches up.
How you’ll know: Your pieces are little cubes about the size of a chickpea, and they all look close to the same.
Mince. Mincing means chopping something into the tiniest pieces you can, smaller than a grain of rice. Tiny pieces melt into the dish, so you get the flavor without biting into a chunk of garlic.
How you’ll know: Every piece is tiny and about the same size, and the pile starts to look almost like a paste.
Food safety: Wash your hands, the board and the knife with hot soapy water after touching raw meat, and don’t rinse raw chicken in the sink.
Cook the bacon in a large pot over medium heat until , about 6 minutes. Lift it out onto a paper towel.
Crispy. Crispy means the outside is dry, firm and crunchy. It comes from high heat, a little oil and room in the pan, because crowded food steams and goes soft.
How you’ll know: It sounds crunchy when you tap or bite it, and it doesn’t flop when you lift it.
Medium heatTimer: 6 min
Food safety: Cook bacon until it’s crisp and no longer translucent.
Add the butter, onion and celery to the pot and cook for 5 minutes, until soft. Stir in the garlic, flour and Old Bay for 1 minute.
Medium heatTimer: 6 min
Slowly in the clam juice and broth, then add the potatoes and bay leaf. .
Whisk. Whisking means beating quickly with a whisk or a fork to blend things together. It smooths out lumps and mixes eggs, oil or sauces evenly.
How you’ll know: It all looks one even color and texture, with no streaks or lumps.
Bring to a boil. It means heating a liquid on high until it’s fully boiling before you move on. A lid on the pot gets it there faster, which makes it a good moment to chop something.
How you’ll know: Big bubbles break all over the surface, and they keep coming when you lift the lid.
High heat
Cover, turn the heat to low and for 12 to 15 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Simmer. Simmering means keeping a liquid just below a boil, with small bubbles rising gently. It cooks food evenly and lets a sauce thicken without scorching on the bottom.
How you’ll know: Small, lazy bubbles break the surface every second or so, and nothing is churning.
Low heatTimer: 13 min 30 sec
Stir in the half-and-half and bring it back to a gentle simmer, with small bubbles only at the edges.
Low heat
Add the fish and simmer gently for 4 minutes, until it turns opaque and flakes when pressed.
Low heatTimer: 4 min
Dolly’s tip: Stir gently from here on so the fish stays in nice chunks.Food safety: Fish is done at 145°F, when the middle looks opaque and flakes apart easily with a fork.
Add the shrimp and clams and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, until the shrimp are pink and curled.
Low heatTimer: 2 min 30 sec
Food safety: Shrimp are done when they turn pink and opaque all the way through and curl into a loose C. A tight O means overcooked, not unsafe.
Pull out the bay leaf, stir in the dill, taste for salt, and serve topped with the bacon, with lemon wedges.
Plan this in Dollop, and get the grocery list
Dollop puts this dinner on a night that suits your week, lists only what you still need to buy, and walks you through each step while you cook.
