Creamy Seafood Chowder – How to make a delicious thick seafood chowder with real cream, shrimp, scallops, and crab. This recipe is the BEST. No potatoes or fillers, thick and creamy with the perfect flavor.
Today I’m bringing you seafood chowder. This recipe has been a favorite of mine for quite a few years now. For Christmas eve we would visit my husband’s aunt and uncle’s house with all the extended family. It’s a great evening with family and delicious food. My husband’s family is Italian so there was always pasta, Italian bread, and an antipasto platter. But this is the food that captured me every year. I couldn’t help but go back for seconds.
I asked his aunt to share the recipe and she kindly did. So this year I made it at home. Oh dear, there is no greater joy in the food world than deliciousness passing through your lips. All 5 of us in our family love seafood so it gets a bit expensive.
But Christmas and New Years are the perfect time to splurge on delicacies that we don’t get to enjoy regularly. So even if you can’t afford to make this creamy seafood chowder year round, I encourage you to try it if just for the special occasions in life.
It is simply the best seafood soup I’ve ever had. I can’t wait to make it again. But I highly doubt that it will only be for Christmas. Pretty soon I’ll be coming up with all sorts of occasions to make this.
- Last day of fall?
- First day back to school after Christmas break?
- My birthday? And every birthday for that matter.
- How about the fact that I slept really good last night? Surely I can come up with all sorts of things.
A new years tradition for many includes seafood. How about your family? Is shrimp and crab part of your New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day tradition? I’d love to hear your typical celebratory food for New Year’s!
Til we meet and eat again,
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Creamy Seafood Chowder
Ingredients
- 8 ounces 1 stick butter, divided
- 1/4 cup minced onion
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1/4 cup minced celery
- 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
- 4 1/2 cup milk 2% or whole
- 2 1/2 cups half and half
- 2 cups seafood stock
- 1 pound large shrimp
- 2/3 pound scallops chopped
- 2/3 pound crab meat lump or claw
- 1/4 cup cooking white cooking wine
- 1 1/2 tablespoons parsley
- 2 teaspoons paprika
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Instructions
- In a Dutch oven or small stock pot melt 6 ounces butter over medium-low heat. Saute onion, garlic and celery until softened and translucent.
- Whisk in flour. Cook and stir. Do not allow it to burn.
- Slowly pour in milk, half and half, and seafood stock stirring constantly as you pour. Continue to stir until thickened and heated through. Turn to low.
- On a separate burner saute shrimp and scallops in remaining 2 ounces of butter. Cook and stir until opaque about 4-5 minutes.
- Add shrimp and scallop mixture to soup. Stir in crab meat, white wine, paprika and sugar. Simmer and stir occasionally for 5 minutes. Turn off heat
- Let rest 10 minutes before serving.
adapted slightly from a recipe from my aunt Toni
You may also like:
Slow Cooker Clam Chowder
Coconut Spinach Shrimp Soup
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Look at all those chunky pieces of shrimp and scallops! Wow Melanie – I sure could tuck into a bowl of this especially since it has no fillers or potatoes! Delicious!
BTW – Happy New Year!
Oh man this looks great! I have never made chowder before but that needs to change!
I am dying to make this chowder but the recipe instructions seem incomplete. Would you please let me know how to complete this recipe? Thanks so much!
I’m sorry about that Marla! I’ve updated the directions and I hope you find it complete. 🙂 Enjoy the chowder. It’s probably one of my top favorite soups of all time.
I’m thinking of making this soon. One quick question though. There is not much seafood stock and a lot of milk and cream. You don’t put in any salt?
Hi Shannon! Thanks for taking the time to stop by. Yes, this is cream based soup so lot of cream and milk. Feel free to change it up a bit though to your specific preference. Salt is to taste. I’ll adjust that in the recipe. Thanks. I hope you enjoy it. Our family surely does!
Thanks for the quick reply! I am planning on making it for my family on Thursday so I will let you know how it turns out for sure! Is there a kind of baseline salt amount? I wouldn’t even know where to start! I would guess maybe 1.5 teaspoons and then just add from there as needed? Would it be super bland without salt? My dad tries to watch his salt intake.
I would start with 1 teaspoon of salt. And yes, add to taste as necessary. I don’t think it would be too bland since there is some chicken broth that has sodium in it. I really hope you all enjoy it!
Hey Melanie, I just made a pot of your soup and for your info if anyone ever asks you how to make this keto, you add xanthan gum powder instead of flour. To use the xanthan gum you need to mix the powder with hot water and as it sits it will look as thick as bacon fat when in the fridge. To add it to the soup you mix it into the garlic, celery, onion mix with a whisk a little at a time. As you add the cream turn heat up to a boil to really activate the xanthan gum. 2/3 cup of flour has about 63 grams of carbs, with 2.2 grams of fiber, so net carbs for the flour is about 60 which is alot.
Thea you’re an angel! What about the sugar?
You must try this! It is the best seafood chowder I have ever tasted!