San Francisco Clam Chowder (in a Sourdough Bread Bowl)

Course Main Courses

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 25

Total Time 35

Servings servings

Calories 283

Author Christina Conte

A lower fat, but still thick and creamy recipe for clam chowder.

Ingredients

¼ cup butter plus 1 Tbsp
1 large onion diced
½ cup pancetta cut into bite sized pieces
2 ½ Tbsp flour
2 cups milk
1 ½ cups water or seafood or vegetable stock
1 ½ tsp sea salt
2 medium potatoes diced (peeled or unpeeled)
2 small cans chopped clams liquid and clams separated
⅛ tsp pepper freshly ground, to taste
3 sprigs fresh parsley chopped, and more to garnish
6 small sourdough bread boules

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Put 1 tablespoonful of the butter into the Dutch oven with the onion over medium high heat, and saute for 5 minutes. Add the pancetta and cook for another few minutes, then remove from pan and set aside.
Add the rest of the butter to the pot, and when melted, add the flour and mix well.
Cook for about 4 minutes over medium high heat, then slowly begin adding the milk, a little at a time. If you add too much milk at first, the white sauce can turn lumpy. Continue to add milk gradually, adding a little more each time, mixing until it is completely absorbed before adding more, until it has all been added.
Next, add the water or stock, and liquid from the clams. Then stir in the pancetta, onion, and potatoes into the soup. Simmer over low heat, stirring often and scraping the bottom to make sure it doesn’t stick. Taste for salt and adjust if needed.
When the potatoes are ready, add the clams and parsley and cook for 3 minutes or so.
Taste for salt again, add some freshly ground pepper and remove from heat.
When ready to serve, cut the top off of the sourdough boules cutting deep into the bread, and remove some of the inside to form a bowl. Heat the bread in a hot oven for about 5 minutes, to make the crust crispy. Ladle hot chowder into the bread bowl. Garnish with parsley if desired and serve immediately.

Notes

Nutrition information is for the chowder without the bread bowl.
Add clam juice if you want a deeper clam flavor.
If you find you have lumps in your white sauce, just use an immersion blender to fix the problem-I won’t tell! ;)

Nutrition

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