Simply Chowder Soup for a Crowd

A big-batch seafood chowder that feeds 20 using a smart shortcut: cream of potato soup as the base instead of making a roux and cooking potatoes from scratch. Sole fillets, canned clams with their juice, and cocktail shrimp give you three types of seafood in every bowl.

The sole fillets get sauteed with onion in butter until flaky, which takes just a few minutes. Then the condensed soup, milk, clams, and shrimp go in and the whole thing heats through. That’s it. The cream of potato soup provides the thick, starchy base, and the clam juice from the can adds briny seafood flavor to the broth.

This is a freezer-friendly recipe, so you can make it ahead for a party or portion out leftovers for quick weeknight meals.

Kitchen Tips

• Break up the sole fillets as they cook. You want flaky pieces distributed throughout the chowder, not whole fillets.
• Use frozen sole straight from the freezer. It breaks apart as it cooks and you don’t need to thaw first.
• Don’t boil after adding the seafood. Gentle heat keeps the shrimp and clams tender instead of rubbery.
• Add the clams with their juice. That liquid is concentrated seafood flavor you don’t want to pour down the drain.

Variations

• Add corn kernels and diced celery for a more New England-style chowder.
• Stir in Old Bay seasoning for a Chesapeake Bay spin.
• Use cod or haddock instead of sole for a firmer, meatier fish in the chowder.