New England Clam Chowder
Creamy potato and clam chowder with bacon.
Ingredients
- 600 g Clams
- 120 g Bacon
- 3 Potatoes
- 1 Onion
- 2 Celery
- 300 ml Heavy cream
- 30 g 00 flour
- 30 g Butter
- ½ tsp Salt
Method
- Steam the clams open in a little water in a covered pot, then chop the meat and reserve the strained liquor.
- Dice the bacon, potato, onion, and celery.
- Render the bacon, soften the onion and celery in the butter, then stir in the flour and cook for a minute.
- Add the potato and the reserved clam liquor and simmer until the potatoes are tender, about 14 minutes.
- Stir in the cream and chopped clams and warm gently without boiling.
- Ladle into bowls and serve with crackers.
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About New England Clam Chowder
New England clam chowder is the ur-chowder: a cream-based soup built on the austere platform of clams and potatoes, anchored by the smoke and salt of bacon. What defines it is not just the shellfish, but the method—steam the clams open first, use their briny cooking liquid as the backbone of your broth, then let the potatoes and cream do the work of turning it into something substantial and silken. The dish carries its New England pedigree proudly: it's the soup of fishing communities working with what they had—clams, salt pork, potatoes stored in root cellars.
A bowl of proper clam chowder tastes like the ocean and the hearth in the same spoonful. The bacon lards the broth with subtle smoke, the potato thickens everything without weighing it down, and the clams themselves—small, tender, sweet—get distributed throughout in little coins of briny shellfish flesh. It's winter food, yes, but served alongside crusty bread or oyster crackers, it's equally at home as a light lunch on a drizzly day or as the opening salvo of a larger meal. The combination of cream and clam liquor is endlessly forgiving; it's almost impossible to overshoot the seasoning.
New England Clam Chowder: frequently asked questions
How many calories are in New England Clam Chowder?
A serving has about 686 calories — 31g protein, 36.9g carbs, 46.4g fat, 3g fiber. Figures are estimated from the ingredient amounts and will shift with your portions and brands.
Is it high in protein?
Each serving has about 31g of protein, roughly 18% of its calories.
Is New England Clam Chowder gluten-free?
As written, no — it contains 00 flour. You'd need a certified gluten-free swap for that ingredient to make it gluten-free.
Is New England Clam Chowder dairy-free?
Not as written — it uses Heavy cream, Butter. Swapping those for a plant-based alternative makes it dairy-free.
How long does New England Clam Chowder take to make?
About 40 minutes start to finish, but only around 25 of those are hands-on — the rest is cooking time. In the Homecooked app the timers and parallel steps are sequenced for you so the hands-on part feels even shorter.
How many servings does New England Clam Chowder make?
This recipe makes 4 servings. In the app you can scale it up or down and the ingredient amounts adjust automatically.