While I am not the biggest seafood fan, my family is, so this slow cooker New England clam chowder is a perfect family dinner recipe for us since it is milder in the clam flavor.
So, if you are looking for the best clam chowder recipe, you have found it. It is an easy slow cooker recipe and is a budget-friendly dinner for the family.
This clam chowder recipe is delightfully creamy and filled with tender potatoes, cream, plenty of spices, and little bits of bacon. I mean what isn’t there to love?!
Recipe Ingredient Notes
To make our New England clam chowder recipe, you need the following ingredients:
- Chopped clams
- Cream of mushroom soup
- Potatoes, peeled and diced
- Celery, diced
- Minced garlic
- Onion, diced
- Cooked bacon
- Dried basil
- Dried thyme
- Bay leaf
- Salt
- Pepper
- Half and half
Equipment Needed
For this recipe, you only need a few simple kitchen tools. We recommend using the following equipment:
How To Make Our Slow Cooker New England Clam Chowder:
- For this recipe, you will want to prepare all of the vegetables and bacon ahead of time.
- So make sure that the bacon has already been cooked and diced.
- Dice up your celery and onion. Then peel the potato and diced that as well.
- Once you have all of that prepared, get out your slow cooker (I even use my Instant Pot on the slow cooker function too!).
- Then, put the cans of chopped clams, with the juice and all, in the slow cooker.
- After the clams have been added, put the can of cream of mushroom soup, diced celery and garlic, peeled and diced potatoes, chopped bacon, dried basil, dried thyme, bay leaf, salt, and pepper into the slow cooker.
- When all of those ingredients have been added to the slow cooker, give it a good mix and then put the lid on.
- Now turn the slow cooker on high for 4 hours.
- After the 4 hours is up, pour in the half and half and let it cook for another hour.
- When the hour is done, remove the bay leaf from the chowder, serve up the soup and enjoy with your favorite bread to dip!
Recipe Notes
Half-and-half Substitutes: If you don’t happen to have half and half on hand for this recipe, or maybe not enough, you might look to see if you can substitute it for something else. The Pioneer Woman has a list of 4 best half and half substitutes that you should check out to see if you have one you could use instead!
Customizations: You can add additional vegetables to this recipe. We recommend the following: frozen corn, frozen peas, shredded carrots, frozen mixed vegetables, and broccoli.
Explore More Delicious Soup Recipes
Explore our collection of soup recipes made in the stovetop, slow cooker or Instant Pot. For more soup inspiration, check out our full list of soups.
- Nacho Grande Soup
- Pasta e Fagioli
- Potato Soup
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- Stuffed Pepper Soup
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- Zuppa Toscana Soup
New England Clam Chowder Recipe
Ingredients
- 4 (6½ ounce) cans chopped clams, (including juice)
- 1 can cream of mushroom soup
- 3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced
- 2 stalks celery, diced
- 2 teaspoons minced garlic
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 6 strips bacon, cooked and diced
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried basil
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried thyme
- 1 bay leaf
- salt & pepper, to taste
- 3 cups half and half
Instructions
- Add clams and juice to slow cooker.
- Add cream of mushroom soup, potatoes, celery, garlic, onion, bacon, basil, thyme, bay leaf, salt and pepper to slow cooker.
- Mix thoroughly until combined.
- Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.
- Add half and half and cook on high for one additional hour.
- Remove bay leaf before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.
sounds great …I like to add chopped carrot and green peas for color and nutrition as well
where can I see the reviews?
Just scroll down and see if anyone has left comments, or click on comments if any have been left.
Where can you read reviews? It shows stars- or lack of them- but you can’t read reviews?
What size cream of mushroom soup do I use for this recipe?
10.75 ounces of cream of mushroom soup.
My husband hates mushrooms and cream of mushroom soup. What can I substitute?
when do I add the bacon? And I would assume it’s already cooked? Making it today for Super Bowl!
The bacon is already cooked. Add it at the same time you add all of the other ingredients in the slow cooker.
I’m planning to put this in the slow cooker tomorrow and was going over my recipe just now and realized I only bought 3 cans (??? who knows) of clams instead of the 4 listed. Is it critical if I’m *short* a can of clams? I can certainly get another can, just didn’t know if it would make or break it!
Hi Molly, you will be fine with 3 cans of clam chowder! 🙂
would this be ok to cook on low for 7-8 hours?
Hi Heather. We haven’t cooked it for that long even though it’s a lower heat. It all seems like it would be fine but we aren’t sure and would hate to have it not work and you are out all of those ingredients. Maybe watch it closely if you are home.
I want to print this recipe but your website takes too long to load….I’ve been on it for 5 minutes and it’s still loading. Way too many ads! I’ve tried it with different browsers as well with no luck. Sad. I like your recipes but I want to print them so I see the whole thing at once.
What size Crockpot/slow cooker did you use for this recipe please?
Most of us use 6 to 8 quart slow cookers.
Would this fit in a 4 qt slow cooker?
It should be fine in a 4 quart slow cooker.
Wait so do we add the half and half in at hour 3? at hour 4? Because you say total cook time is 4 hours but then you say cook for 4 hours and then add halfback and half and cook for an additional hour. That would make total cook home 5 hours.
If I double the recipe do I need to increase cook time
You may need to add a little cooking time. You don’t say how big your slow cooker is. Just make sure the veggies are cooked through.
I made this tonight. I thought it was pretty good, but I will tweak it next time around. I will add Italian panna, as I think it will thicken it a bit more, and I would also go lighter on the basil and thyme (probably less than 1/2 teaspoon, as it was overpowering). Otherwise, cooking time and everything was spot on.
I cant find the insta potrecipe for thr clam chowder on website
I was wondering the same thing! Total cooking time 4 hours but recipe says to cook 4 hours, then add half and half and cook additional 1 hour. That would make total cooking time 5 hours
I made this today, but cut the recipe in half because it’s just me! It worked out beautifully, I added a little corn and used fat free half and half because that’s all i had, and it was INCREDIBLE. My parents came over and stole the leftovers. Def on the keep list!
So glad you liked the clam chowder.
Made this for Dinner was Delish will definitely be making again!!
This soup is delicious and it tasted just like the clam chowder I had in New England while on vacation and your directions were easy to follow. I will definitely be making this soup again. Thanks for such a great recipe.
We are so happy to hear that you loved the Clam Chowder. Thanks Carol!
Recipe worked great! Everyone loved it. I give it a AA+
This recipe is spot on! It makes a delicious clam chowder. The only thing I altered was adding 5 cans of clams instead of 4 🙂