Salmon Chowder

4.88 from 33 votes

This creamy salmon chowder recipe is incredibly flavorful and easy to make with everyday ingredients! It's loaded with crispy bacon, fresh dill, corn, and potatoes.

Prep Time10

Cook Time40

Total Time50

Course: Soup

Cuisine: American

Keyword: salmon chowder

Servings:

Author: Natasha Bull

Ingredients

4 strips bacon cut into small pieces
1 pound fresh salmon
1/2 medium onion chopped small
2 medium carrots peeled & chopped small
2 sticks celery chopped small
1 large clove garlic minced
2 tablespoons flour
3 cups chicken broth or stock
1 cup clam juice see note
1 cup heavy/whipping cream
2 large Russet potatoes peeled & diced
3/4 cup corn (frozen or fresh)
1 tablespoon fresh dill chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

Prep your bacon (I use kitchen shears to make it easy) and add it to a large pot over medium-high heat. Cook until crispy (about 10 minutes).
Meanwhile, prep your onion, celery, carrots, and potatoes.
Once the bacon is crispy, take it out of the pot and transfer it to a paper towel lined plate. Leave the bacon fat in the pot.
Add the salmon to the pot and cook for 2 minutes/side and then it transfer to a plate (salmon probably won't be fully cooked and that's fine. This step is just to add some extra flavor and to avoid having to cut up raw salmon since that's more tedious). The salmon skin may stick to the pot a bit, but that's ok, just use your spoon to get most of it off.
Leave about 1 tablespoon of the fat in the pot, and then add the onion, carrots, and celery. Sauté for 5 minutes.
Stir in the garlic and cook for 30 seconds.
Add in the flour and cook for about a minute, stirring nearly constantly.
Add in the chicken broth and clam juice. Give it a good stir to ensure the flour has dissolved and the flavorful brown bits are scraped up from the bottom of the pot.
Add in the cream, potatoes, corn, and most of the bacon (I reserve the rest for garnishing the bowls later on). Increase the heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. Once it's boiling, reduce the heat to a rapid simmer so it's gently boiling.
Cook, uncovered, until the potatoes are tender (about 15-20 minutes). Stir occasionally.
Use a fork to break the salmon into smaller pieces. The skin should slide off easily (don't add the skin to the soup unless you want to). Take the soup off the heat. Add the salmon and dill to the soup. It should only take a few minutes for the salmon to finish cooking through.
Season the soup with salt & pepper as needed. Garnish with the rest of the bacon.

Notes

Serves 4-6 depending on portion size.
I don't recommend subbing the cream for milk or half-and-half as the boiling may curdle the soup.
The clam juice can easily be found in most grocery stores (I found it the same place as canned fish like tuna etc.). If you can't easily find a good fish stock, clam juice is a great way to use chicken broth and have this soup still have that well-rounded seafood chowder taste.

Nutrition