How To Make Seafood Chowder With Fresh Dungeness Crab

When crab season comes around in Northern California we are looking for everything we can make with it. This seafood chowder was a hit with the one in our home who doesn’t even like crab! A thick, rich chowder brimming with seafood and flavor. You can use any seafood you like in this recipe.

This recipe is made gluten free by using gluten free flour.

Watch A Video

Here is a video of 2 Cooks in the Kitchen making Seafood Chowder With Fresh Dungeness Crab.

https://youtu.be/wdZQKgkyjEI

Ingredients For Seafood Chowder:

• 4 Slices of Bacon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces.
• 1 Onion, diced
• 2 Celery Ribs, diced.
• 1 1/2 Pound Red Potatoes, diced.
• 5 Cloves of Garlic, ground.
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt.
• 1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper.
• 1/3 Cup Gluten Free Flour.
• 4 Cups Crab Broth (or Chicken Broth).
• 2 Tablespoons Thyme Leaves.
• 2 Bay Leaves.
• A Pinch of Saffron Threads.
• 1/2 teaspoon Old Bay Seasoning.
• 1 1/2 Pounds Red Potatoes, diced.
• 1/2 Pound White Fish, cut into cubes.
• 1/2 Cup Bay Shrimp.
• 5 Large Shrimp cut into bite size pieces.
• 1/4 Cup Parsley, chopped.
• 1/2 Pound Fresh Dungeness Crab, crumbled.
• 1 Cup Heavy Cream

About the Broth For This Chowder

We believe this chowder really benefits from a seafood stock. Since we are picking crab for this and many other things, we save the shells. The shells get boiled with some carrot and celery for a few hours and voila! Crab Broth. You can also substitute chicken broth or vegetable broth but you’ll lose a little seafoodiness.

Cook the Bacon

We start out by cooking the bacon in a stock pot. We’ll give it about 7 minutes to render some of the fat out and get the meat cooked. We’ll be using the fat to make a roux.

Add the Onion and Celery

Next we want to get the onion and celery cooked. We cut these into a fairly small dice so they disappear into the chowder when cooked. We’ll add them to the pot and cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

Garlic, Salt and Pepper

Now that our flour is cooking along we will add the garlic, salt and pepper. You can use a garlic press or we like to use a garlic grinder.

Add Gluten Free Flour

Next we sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir it in thoroughly. We want the flour to cook, but it dries up all the oil in the pan so we need to stir it fairly constantly while it cooks.

Add the Crab Broth

Now we will add about 1/4 cup of crab broth. We’ll stir this until all the liquid is absorbed. Then we add another 1/4 cup and stir until that is absorbed. We’ll continue like this 4 times until we’ve added 1 cup of crab broth.

Add A Second Cup of Crab Broth

For the second cup of broth we’ll add it in 3 stages, 1/3 of a cup at a time. By the end it will no longer dry out quite as much but the roux has kept cooking constantly and so you should have a nice, thick base going. You don’t want to rush this as it is the foundation for our seafood chowder.

Add the Last 2 Cups of Crab Broth

Now we’ll add a third cup and stir it in so there aren’t any lumps. Then we pour in the last cup. When that is all stirred in you’ll have a really nice chowder consistency.

Add Thyme, Bay Leaves, Saffron and Old Bay

Now we’ll add our thyme, bay leaves, saffron, old bay seasoning and give it a good stir.

Add the Potatoes

Next we add the potatoes. We like these in a fairly small dice so they fit on a spoon along with something else. We’ll turn the burner to low and let this cook for 15 minutes with the cover on the pan.

Add the Fish

The fish is going to take longer to cook than the shrimp so we will add it first. We used halibut when we made the video for this recipe but it would be better with some other fish such as cod or sea bass. It’s too easy to overcook the halibut and it gets dry and tough when we do that. Rock fish are more forgiving. We will turn the heat back up to medium and cook the fish for 5 minutes.

Add the Shrimp

Next we add the shrimp. We just put both kinds of shrimp in now even though the bay shrimp are already cooked. We’ll let the shrimp cook for 3 minutes.

Add the Parsley and Crab

Next we add the parsley and then the crab. We like to break the crab up into smaller pieces that completely infiltrate the soup. Yum!

Add the Cream

the last ingredient is the cream. All we have to do now is let the chowder get hot again and it’s ready to serve. We tried this with some toasted gluten free bread and it even made the bread taste good!

Here are some other crab recipes to make with fresh dungeness crab.

• Thai Coconut Curry Crab
• Yellow Curry Crab
• Crab Stuffed Mushrooms
• Dungeness Crab Cakes
• Gumbo With Fresh Dungeness Crab

We have videos about cooking and picking crab that might be helpful if you are new to it.

• Picking Dungeness Crab
• Cleaning and Steaming Live Dungeness Crab

If you enjoyed this recipe subscribe to our Youtube Channel and share on social media. Leave us a message and let us know of any other recipes you’d like to see us work on.