Crock Pot Clam Chowder is a tasty soup recipe that’s so easy. Making it New England style gives you a rich & creamy chowder you can’t beat! This is a slow cooker soup recipe you can’t miss out on- you’ve gotta give it a try.

 

One of the easiest ways to keep warm during the colder months is with a delicious bowl of warm soup. While there’s tons of different soup recipes out there, my family loves rich and creamy soup recipes- just try our Creamy Potato Soup and Creamy Cabbage Soup recipes. Pretty recently, we decided to try out a classic soup recipe we’ve been meaning to get around to and we think it turned out perfectly: Crock Pot Clam Chowder.

Crockpots and slow cookers are useful when you’re making comforting creamy soup recipes- just look at our Slow Cooker Ham and Potato Soup. You give all the ingredients plenty of time to soften up and stew together. Especially with Slow Cooker Clam Chowder, the clam juice and those potato starches come together to make a delicious chowder.

Add in a healthy dash of half-and-half and cornstarch at the end and you get a ridiculously creamy CrockPot Clam Chowder! It all makes for a tasty seafood soup that goes great with a side of oyster crackers or some nice crusty bread. You could even serve this up in one of our Bread Bowls– to make this a San Fransisco style Clam Chowder Bread Bowl.

Why you’ll love this easy Crock Pot Clam Chowder recipe

• Making this CrockPot New England Clam Chowder really is as simple as pitching all your prepped ingredients into the slow cooker. The only other work you’ll have to do is prepping up some cornstarch and half-and-half- your Crockpot will do everything else in this easy soup recipe!
• Cooking your Slow Cooker Chowder low and slow gives you some of the richest and creamiest chowder you’ve ever tried. Even using chopped clams from a can like we did yields some of the Best Clam Chowder!
• Homemade Clam Chowder is really forgiving when it comes to substitutions and any changes you want to make to the recipe. Best of all, it will keep in the fridge pretty well for quite a while!

Crock Pot Clam Chowder Ingredients

You’re not going to need anything exotic or fancy to make this Crock Pot Clam Chowder- you don’t even need to make clam chowder with fresh clams for it to be great! You’ll have most of this stuff in your pantry already, but here’s what you need if you have to run to the store:

• Bacon – A bit of bacon in your clam chowder tastes great! We used this thick-cut bacon: chop it up into more bite-sized pieces and fry it off before using it in this recipe.
• Chopped Clams – You can find these canned clams at most grocery stores- usually sold as Snow’s Chopped Clams. Chopped clams are pre-cooked, so we don’t have to worry about them being undercooked in this recipe. Remember to save some of that clam juice, or “clam liquor,” for later!
• Onion – Go with a white or yellow onion for this recipe.
• Potatoes – we used a Idahoan variety.
• Celery
• Garlic – Minced garlic from the jar will work fine here.
• Salt & Pepper
• Half-and-Half
• Cornstarch – We’ll be mixing this up with our half-and-half later to make ourselves a really creamy clam chowder!

See recipe card for quantities.

How to make Clam Chowder in a Crock Pot

Making this Crock Pot Clam Chowder in a slow cooker really helps cut down on the prep time and makes this a really hands-off recipe. Here’s all you have to do to make some of this creamy chowder up for yourself:

• Chop your bacon into bite-sized pieces and cook in a skillet until crisp before moving to a paper towel-lined plate. Open canned clams and drain off excess liquid, making sure you reserve 1 cup of clam juice. Add clams, diced onion, diced potatoes, diced celery, minced garlic, salt & pepper, and half of the bacon to a crock pot.

• Add reserved clam juice and 1 cup of water to the crock pot and give a quick stir. Cover and cook on high for around 3 hours.

• Add half-and-half and cornstarch to a measuring cup and whisk until cornstarch has dissolved. Uncover your crock pot, add the half-and-half mixture to the clam chowder, and briefly stir to combine. Re-cover and let cook on high for another 30 minutes. Sprinkle remaining bacon on top and serve.

Substitutions

Like a lot of classic soup recipes, not every ingredient here is set in stone and there’s room to make various substitutions in our Crockpot Clam Chowder Recipe. Here’s just a few ingredients you can substitute in if you need:

• Bacon – We used the thick cut bacon in this recipe because it holds up much better in the crock pot after we fry it up. Of course, you can easily sub in some pre-cooked bacon or even some thicker bacon crumbles if you have them on hand. Just know that they might not hold up as well in the crockpot.
• Half and Half – Using half-and-half adds a lot of rich and creamy flavor to our clam chowder, especially near the end of cooking. If you don’t have half-and-half on hand, you can mix equal parts of milk and heavy cream for a quick substitute- this also lets you adjust whether you want more cream or milk. You can also give using non-dairy milk or other creamy beverages like coconut cream a shot.
• Cornstarch – If you’re in need of another thickener besides cornstarch, you might want to reach for some all-purpose flour. You can use flour as a thickener in a similar way you would use cornstarch- you’ll just need to cook off the flour taste and use a bit more flour than cornstarch. To substitute flour for cornstarch, just use twice as much flour as you would cornstarch.

Variations

When we hear the words “Clam Chowder,” we’re usually thinking of this New England-style recipe. If you look around, you’ll see there’s quite a few different styles of clam chowder recipes to pick from! Here’s a couple you can give a try next time you’re making some Crock Pot Clam Chowder:

• Manhattan Clam Chowder – New England Clam Chowder isn’t the only clam chowder recipe you’ll find in the Northeast! Manhattan Chowder is a fair bit different from New England Chowder for one main reason: tomatoes. For a Manhattan-style Clam Chowder, add diced tomatoes to your vegetables, mix your clam juice with tomato juice, and drop the half-and-half.
• Rhode Island Clam Chowder – Another spin on clam chowder you’ll find is Rhode Island Clam Chowder. These recipes usually skip out on added cream and any sort of tomato, so you get more of a “clear” clam soup. To make a Rhode Island style Clam Chowder, all you really have to do is skip out on the half-and-half and maybe add a bit more clam juice. For some added flavor, add some white wine and a bit of thyme too!

Storage / Freezing

Storage: If you want to save any of your leftover clam chowder soup, the fridge is going to be your best bet. Transfer your chowder to a resealable airtight container and keep it in the fridge. Kept like this, it’ll last for 3-4 days- 5 if it’s kept really well.

Freezing: While you can freeze clam chowder, it’s not going to freeze very well. Thanks to all the dairy and seafood, the texture and tastes are going to change a bit after they’ve been frozen and thawed out. Transfer your Crockpot Clam Chowder to freezer-safe containers and keep frozen for 3-4 months. Let thaw overnight in the fridge before gradually reheating in your crock pot or on the stovetop.

Best Side Dishes to Serve with Clam Chowder

Looking for some delicious sides to serve with your New England Style Clam Chowder? Try these:

• Bread Bowls
• Dutch Oven Bread
• Homemade Dinner Rolls
• House Salad

Other Soup Recipes to Try

Here are some more of our favorite soup recipes that you should try: