Cold weather is slowly creeping in! For me, that means warm, comfort foods to share with family and friends. Also, it’s the time of year that everyone seems to be fussing with holiday prepping, house cleaning, shopping, etc. While the prep for this recipe is a bit time consuming, it is made entirely in your handy, dandy crock pot. One dish! Yay! I hope you will add this dish, to your list of go-to comfort foods for the season!
Seafood Chowder for a Crowd
Ingredients
- 1/2 stick butter
- 3 cups chicken broth
- 1 qt half and half
- 1 Tbsp soul seasoning use your favorite seafood seasoning
- 1 Tbsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper omit if desired
- 3 bay leaves
- 2 stalks finely chopped celery
- 1 cup finely chopped carrot
- 1 finely chopped small yellow onion
- 5 russet potatoes peeled and chopped small
- 1 can corn drained
- 2 cans crab meat with juice
- 3 cans chopped clams with juice
- 1 12 oz bag cooked frozen shrimp thawed
- 4 Tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley optional
Instructions
The broth
-
In large crock pot, combine the first seven ingredients. For the chicken broth, you can use canned or just make broth from bullion. Either will work fine. Replace cover and set on high.
The good stuff
-
While the broth is heating up in your crock pot, go ahead and start cleaning, peeling, and chopping your veggies! I like to chop the onion, celery, and carrot pretty fine for this recipe. It makes for a creamier, smoother texture. See photo. Next, peel potatoes and chop in small bite size pieces. The potatoes will cook quicker and not overwhelm the seafood. After all of your chopping is done. Remove lid of crock pot and add veggies. Drain can of corn and add to mix. Then add canned clams and crab, but do no tdrain those. The juice in the seafood cans will add flavor to your broth. Replace lid and continue cooking on high for 2 hours. Then switch to low setting for the remaining four hours.
But, wait there's more! An hour before cooking time is done, add your thawed and drained bag of pre-cooked and cleaned, shrimp. Mix corn starch with 1/2 cup cold water until well blended and stir into chowder. This will help thicken the broth. Replace lid and continue cooking on low for another hour or until potatoes and celery are nice and soft. Add salt & pepper to taste prior to serving, and sprinkle top of chowder with parsley for a nice finish.
-
Serve with chowder crackers, crusty bread, and/or and giant salad!
